May 7, 2021

We are following up on the discussion we had yesterday during our weekly NYS Council Member Support and Public Policy call regarding two ‘same as’ bills that seek to amend a new executive law that became effective Jan. 1, 2021.  The Law requires certain nonprofit organizations to file fiscal and other information with the NYS Department of State, much of which is also required by the NYS Charities Bureau.  There is also a significant concern among advocates that while the Charities Bureau protects filing information regarding agency donors, the new law does not currently require DOS to do the same.  The amendments (attached) are focused on this second issue.

Based on the 1/1/2021 effective date of the new law. NYS nonprofits that operate on a calendar fiscal year are required to file with the DOS by 5/15/2021.  FYI, the NYS Council spoke with our accounting firm yesterday about the new requirement.   We received the following response (directly below in italics).  Note:  We urge all members to check in with and seek guidance from your CPA firm on this matter:

(from our accounting firm)

“The new law is silent on extensions most likely because Executive Law does not authorize the Department of State to grant extensions for reports filed with the Department.  However, the statute also does not authorize the Department of State to impose any penalties for noncompliance with the filing requirements. We expect the Department will accept reports submitted for filing after the report’s original due date and ultimately follow the IRS deadline. 

So we are recommending that a NYS.gov account is setup and these reports are filed this when the IRS 990 and CHAR 500 is finalized.  This is the approach of many CPA firms that we have been in contact with.  As you might expect, there are already lawsuits filed against this new law in general.”

Again, the ‘same as’ bills we told you about yesterday that seek to amend the law do not seek to repeal the law.  We are working today to gather more information on the negotiations that led to this approach.   We will be back to you shortly.  

THANK YOU for your advocacy yesterday!  The Senate version (S4817) of the ‘same as’ bills to amend the original law is now on the Senate Finance Committee calendar next week.  GOOD WORK! We will need to keep up our advocacy efforts already underway.  

See attached and don’t let the first summary page fool you.  Scroll down to the additional information that includes the language being proposed to amend the original law.