Nonprofit organizations can provide assistance to disaster or emergency hardship victims in a variety of ways that accomplish charitable purposes. Disaster relief generally takes the form of one or two activities: 1. Aid to individuals, and 2. Aid to businesses. In order for the aid to be seen as a proper 501(c)3 tax-exempt activity, it should fall within the following guidelines:
Aid to individuals—assistance in the form of funds, services, or goods to ensure that victims have the basic necessities, such as food, clothing, housing (including repairs), transportation, and medical assistance (including psychological counseling). The type of aid that is appropriate depends on the individual’s needs and resources.
Aid to businesses—assistance to individual business owners who are financially needy or otherwise distressed to combat community deterioration and to lessen the burdens of government.

Learn more from the IRS by viewing Publication 3833, Disaster Relief: Providing Assistance Through Charitable Organizations, at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p3833.pdf

Please contactus@dandridgelaw.com should you have any questions regarding this post or our services.

Labels: 501c3, disaster relief, emergency, lawyer, nonprofit, tax exempt

What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.

What is a Service mark?
A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes a service instead of a product.

What are the benefits of Trademark Registration?

• Constructive notice to the public of claim of ownership of the mark;
• The ability to bring an action (sue someone) for infringment in federal court;
• Use of US registration as a basis to obtain registration in foreign countries; and
• The ability to prevent importation of infringing foreign goods.

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Labels: attorney, lawyer, service mark, trademark

If your 501c nonprofit tax-exempt organization has annual gross receipts normally $25,000 or less, it most likely has a new annual filing requirement: Form 990-N. Before the Pension Protection Act of 2006 recently added this filing requirement, small nonprofits had no obligation to file an annual return. The IRS says that this filing requirement was added to ensure that they and potential donors have current information about the organization. The first Form 990-N’s started becoming due in May, 2008 for tax years ending on or after December 31, 2007. Small nonprofit organizations must file Form 990-N annually to avoid penalties and the possible loss of tax-exempt status.

Please contactus@dandridgelaw.com should you have any questions regarding this post or our services.

Labels: 501c3, 990N, attorney, IRS, lawyer, nonprofit, tax-exempt

Taken directly from LegalZoom.com’s website, their disclaimer reads, “LegalZoom is not a law firm, and the employees of LegalZoom are not acting as your attorney. LegalZoom's legal document service is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.” It further reads that, “LegalZoom is prohibited from providing any kind of advice, explanation, opinion, or recommendation to a consumer about possible legal rights, remedies, defenses, options, selection of forms or strategies.”

If you use LegalZoom.com or other do-it-yourself document preparation service with a legal-sounding name to prepare your Nonprofit, Trademark or Copyright application, you run the risk of filing an extremely flawed document. As these types of services merely take otherwise publicly available forms and plug in the blanks with information you provide to them, without the benefit of legal advice and guidance, you may as well give a go at it yourself. Should you choose to have your documents prepared this way, you run a huge risk of filing a flawed application, for which the IRS, US Patent and Trademark Office and Copyright Office may reject for legal reasons outside the scope of this non-legal service.

See the following links for LegalZoom Customer Complaints, Allegations of Consumer Fraud and Critiques

LegalZoom Mistake In Forming Non-Profit Delaware Corporation
LegalZoom Deceptive Trademark Practice
LegalZoom Applied For A Copyright and Never Received It
LegalZoom.com Faces Consumer Fraud Class Action Over Trademark Filing Fees
Zoom Past LegalZoom
What is LegalZoom?

Labels: attorney, copyright, lawyer, LegalZoom, LegalZoom.com, nonprofit, trademark