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New York’s “Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (SHIELD Act)” (the “Act”) officially took effect on October 23, 2019. In pertinent part, the Act amends New York General Business Law (“GBS”) § 899 to expand the scope of “private information” covered under existing data breach notification provisions, to more broadly define what constitutes…

A federal judge has invalidated a New York state Ethics Law requiring § 501(c)(3) and § 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations to publicly report their donors under certain circumstances.

Background. Organizations exempt from taxation under Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) § 501(c)(3) (charitable organizations) are expressly prohibited from participating in any political campaign activity for or against…

In what may be a bellwether for future challenges to existing U.S. Treasury Regulations, on August 6, 2019 the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota in Mayo Clinic v. United States invalidated Treasury Regulation § 1.170A-9(c) on the grounds that the Treasury Department exceeded the bounds of its statutory authority when it…

On August 12, 2019, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law S.6577/A.8421 (the “Act”), providing new workplace harassment protections for New York workers. While certain provisions of the previous law applied only to employers with four or more employees, the Act is applicable to all employers in the state—including nonprofits.

Effective October 11, 2019, the Act…

On September 10, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service issued proposed updates to the information reporting regulations applicable to tax-exempt organizations. The proposed regulations  generally incorporate existing statutory amendments and IRS guidance provided since the current regulations were adopted.

Among the proposals is a regulation that would put into effect the changes previously announced in Revenue…

On July 30, 2019, the court in Bullock v. IRS, No. CV-18-103-GF-BMM (D. Mont. July 30, 2019) invalidated IRS Revenue Procedure 2018-38 governing tax-exempt organizations’ disclosure of donor information on the grounds that it was promulgated without the required notice-and-comment period.

Background

As described in our previous blog post, prior to Revenue Procedure…

The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) defines virtual currency as “a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and/or a store of value.” Virtual currency is not backed by a government-issued legal tender. Convertible virtual currency such as Bitcoin—by far the most popular—may be used to pay for…