Zondervan 2010 Church and Nonprofit Tax and Financial Guide: For 2009 Tax Returns

Volunteered to be the annual financial review officer for my UCC Church - found the Zondervan series of guides, and got the book. Found it very straight forward, and with excellent format to help me conduct the audit of all aspects of our church. Resulted in finding 8 areas that needed improvement. Very good suggestions and cautions on where a church can get into trouble.

The Budget Bucket is one of 20 buckets in my book, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit, and I draw heavily on Dan Busby's savvy wisdom in that bucket. Ball #3 in the Budget Bucket is simple: "Monitor Monthly Reports." But here's the catch. When you change board treasurers, don't change your reporting! Pardon the pun, but you can take this one to the bank. This scene writes itself all across North America: Your nonprofit board elects a new board treasurer. He's from the hardware industry and he's a smart guy. He tweaks the monthly financial reports based on his experience and his accounting knowledge. Your last treasurer was from the hotel industry, and three years ago, she changed the report formats to align with her financial preferences. The previous treasurer asked Cousin Eddie to install financial software from his dry cleaning business. One problem--your nonprofit doesn't do dry cleaning! Time out, everyone! This makes absolutely no sense and no thoughtful business person would ever permit this craziness in his or her own business. Resist the temptation to allow elected board treasurers and board finance committees to change the reporting systems at will. The solution? Dan Busby recommends that you establish a standard reporting format and stick with it. Busby says there is one basic rule in preparing financial reports: "Prepare different reports for different audiences. For example, a church board would normally receive a more detailed financial report than the church membership. Department heads in a nonprofit organization might receive reports that only relate to their department." It's simple--but it takes courage to find a report format and stick with it. Busby's book is a must for your church or nonprofit ministry.

As an accountant, treasurer of a non-profit, and a director at a church, this book has been a great reference for me. It is pretty thorough and very readable. We also keep a copy at our accounting firm. However, with the complications of these issues, I must caution that it is not a replacement for routinely consulting a professional (such as a CPA) who is well-versed in this area.

This book is much easier to understand than the IRS publications or Tax Code. The "helpful hints" offer best practices that are easily adopted. The "10 worst mistakes" are right on in that my church's problem areas are listed as Mistake 1 and Mistake 2. As a CPA, I purchased one set for me and one set for my church so we can discuss issues over the phone while referring to the same book. This is very helpful. Thank you for the great resource.

This guide covers all the most important tax topics for churches and nonprofit organizations and includes most of the areas where nonprofits tend to get into trouble. The author covers issues of accountability, tax exemption, employee compensation, benefits, reporting, financial records, charitable gifting, risk management, and many other common problem areas. Of particular value is the special index that points the reader to the specific issues and problems of churches. In addition there are multiple checklists, charts, procedures, and even sample board resolutions. Written in plain English so anyone can understand and yet comprehensive enough to keep your nonprofit or church well-organized and out of trouble, the Zondervan 2005 Church and Nonprofit Tax and Financial Guide is highly recommended to everyone involved with the financial aspects of any nonprofit or church.