Form 990: Best Practices for Accurate Preparation - Tax Staff Essentials

Understand best practices for preparing various Form 990s for your tax clients.

• Recognize filing requirements for the different Form 990s.
• Recognize the detail sought by the IRS in reporting on program service accomplishments in Part III of the Core Form 990.
• Recall the accounting conventions (and methods) required for reporting financial information on Parts VIII-X of the Core Form.
• Recognize the impact that Schedule L reporting has on the independence of a filer's voting board members.
• Identify where to access data necessary for completion of the Form 990.
• Distinguish where the filing organization's financial information is to be properly reported on Parts VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII of the 990 Core Form.
• Recognize the importance of making expanded disclosures via narration on Schedule O for many of the various governance disclosures required on Part VI of the Core Form.

• Program service accomplishments and reporting changes
• Reporting on managers and their compensation
• Reporting on governance
• Further disclosures specific to an entity's circumstances (Core Form 990 Part IV, Delineating Additional Schedules required)
• Financial information reporting
• Sequencing and completing the return
• Board of directors' discussion of Form 990
• Related organizations
• Transactions with interested persons
• Form 990's common schedules
• Other IRS filings and tax compliance