The commissions paid to a hospital association by vendors providing debt collection and group purchasing services to its members are subject to unrelated business income tax, the Tax Court has ruled.  They are not considered substantially related to the exempt purpose of the association and are not excluded from unrelated business income either as “royalties” or as activities carried on primarily “for the convenience” of its members.

The former CEO of two nonprofit corporations affiliated with the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute has been denied an advancement of legal fees to defend against criminal charges resulting from the corporations’ procurement practices.  An appellate court in New York has affirmed a trial court order denying payment.

The problem of an unincorporated association holding title to real estate has shown its ugly head once again in trying to ascertain ownership of a boy scout camp on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.  A trial court awarded title to the property to the Cape Cod & Islands Council of the Boy Scouts, an incorporated organization, rather than to the Nantucket District Committee, an unincorporated association to which the property was given.  The Appeals Court of Massachusetts has reversed for further proceedings.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the imposition of taxable expenditure excise taxes on a private foundation and a foundation manager who ran radio ads seeking to influence a 2000 ballot measure in Oregon.  The Court did not decide that the ads were improper lobbying activity, but held that they were not sufficiently “educational” to qualify as a charitable and educational activity.  The Court further held that the manager could be personally liable because the lawyer’s opinion on which he claimed he relied for approving at least some of the ads was not a “reasoned o