Nonprofit Issues for the “Non” Nonprofit Lawyer: Nonprofit Tax Issues

Mr. Gorovitz's practice spans the full range of nonprofit and tax-exempt legal issues, with emphasis on political advocacy and nonprofit corporate governance.

Mr. Gorovitz is the former President of Youth Enrichment Strategies and served on the board of an independent school. He is also a member of the California Political Attorneys Association, the tax law section of the American Bar Association, the California State Bar Association, and the Bar Association of San Francisco.

Mr. Gorovitz has lectured at (among others) U.C. Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, U.C. Hastings School of Law, and Golden Gate University School of Law, and conducted trainings for nonprofit organizations across the country.

Cynthia Rowland is a partner in Farella Braun Martel’s Exempt Organizations and Family Wealth Groups. Ms. Rowland has extensive experience in tax and corporate law, and she has a special focus on charitable giving arrangements and complex structures for nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.

Ms. Rowland enjoys helping high-net-worth individuals and families achieve personal and family business, charitable, philanthropic and community objectives. She has successfully obtained federal and state tax exempt status for a broad range of charitable organizations, including public charities, private foundations, museums, educational institutions, animal welfare associations, trade associations and churches. She has assisted charitable organizations in all aspects of their missions, including entity formation, business transactions and grant agreements, regulatory compliance matters, and mergers and dissolutions.

Ms. Rowland counsels trustees and directors of charitable organizations on fiduciary and tax issues, including those raised by actual and potential conflicts of interest, regulatory investigations and audits, as well as issues raised by settlement of complex litigation involving the fiduciaries and/or a charitable organization.

Ms. Rowland has obtained numerous favorable private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service for her clients related to complex federal tax issues. She also has experience with the federal tax whistleblower procedures. Ms. Rowland is a frequent lecturer on nonprofit and tax topics and co-authors three chapters in the California CEB Treatise “Advising California Nonprofit Corporations.” She serves as a member of Farella’s five-person Advisory Board, which provides long-term strategic direction for the firm.

Since 2014, Stephen Clarke has been a managing director of the Exempt Organization Tax Services division at Ernst & Young LLP, based in Washington, D.C. Steve provides tax advisory and compliance services to tax-exempt organizations across the country in various areas, including IRS examination and tax controversy support, exemption applications, public charity status, unrelated business income tax, private benefit/inurement and intermediate sanctions, private letter rulings, compliance with ACA 501(r) requirements for tax-exempt hospitals, and compliance with the tax requirements of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the CARES Act.

Before joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Clarke was a tax law specialist, project manager and guidance group manager with IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TEGE). He served as the project manager for the 2008 redesign, rollout, and ongoing revision of Form 990, the information return filed annually by charities and other exempt organizations. As guidance group manager, he managed a group of tax law specialists in drafting guidance for and responding to private letter ruling requests of tax-exempt organizations.

Prior to joining the IRS in 2005, Mr. Clarke worked as an attorney with Gammon & Grange, P.C., a law firm in northern Virginia, where he served tax-exempt organizations, radio broadcasters, and trust and estate clients since 1996.

Throughout his career he has worked with nonprofit organizations, helping them to understand and comply with tax and other regulatory requirements while also helping them to meet their charitable goals. He serves on the board of directors of Good Samaritan Advocates, a nonprofit organization providing pro bono legal services to low-income persons, since 2004. He also serves on the board of directors of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Council, a group that facilitates dialogue between IRS TEGE and the tax-exempt sector.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wheaton College in Illinois and his juris doctorate from the College of William and Mary School of Law, where he served as an editor of the Law Review. He is an active member of the Virginia bar.