News For Non-Profits – 2013

Annual survey names best nonprofit employers 
Do you want to see how your organization holds up against the nonprofits that employees like best? The 2013 “Best Nonprofits To Work For,” a yearly competition conducted by The NonProfit Times and Best Companies Group, is available to peruse at http://www.thenonprofittimes.com

The confidential survey ranks nonprofits according to how their employees rated them in areas such as leadership and planning, role satisfaction, and work environment. Caring about employees and offering flexible benefits were among the traits common to the best-rated organizations.

Health care “play or pay” delayed until 2015

Many employers — including nonprofits — will enjoy a one-year respite from a significant provision of the 2010 health care act: shared responsibility, also known as “play or pay.” The provision will take effect Jan. 1, 2015, rather than Jan. 1, 2014, as originally scheduled. The deferral was announced in July.
Under the play-or-pay provision, “large” employers that don’t offer a “minimum value” of “affordable health coverage” to their full-time employees will risk a penalty if just one full-timer receives a premium tax credit for purchasing individual coverage through one of the new affordable insurance exchanges.

“Large” employers have 50 or more full-time employees — or a mix of part-timers and full-timers that’s “equivalent” to 50 or more full-timers.

If you are a large employer, you now have more time to determine whether your coverage meets the requirements and, if it doesn’t, to consider whether to adjust coverage to comply or risk the penalties. Keep in mind that additional IRS guidance is expected.

If you’re a smaller organization, be aware that, beginning in 2014, an enhanced version of the health care coverage tax credit may be available to reimburse your nonprofit for up to 35% of the health care premiums you pay.

Contact AAF if you have questions on how these changes will affect your nonprofit.

Embezzlement scam linked to maintenance contracts

A former mechanic, with authority to approve some maintenance contracts, recently pled guilty to stealing $1.1 million from the Woodruff Arts Center, the Atlanta area’s largest cultural center. He faces a possible prison term of 41 to 51 months. According to prosecutors, the employee used bogus invoices and kickbacks from a vendor to steal from the center over several years.

One way to thwart this type of embezzlement is for the executive director to co-approve invoices — particularly large ones. And do a little digging to make sure expenses and the vendors providing the services are legitimate.