099: Nonprofit Basics: International Grantmaking Part 1 - Overview and Antiterrorism Rules

Welcome to EO Radio Show—Your Nonprofit Legal Resource. I'm Cynthia Rowland, and today's episode introduces several critical compliance topics relevant to international grantmaking by U.S. public charities and private foundations. These are the antiterrorism rules, income tax withholding rules, and special rules for private foundations.

These "basics" episodes touch on the rules for U.S. charitable organizations that make grants to organizations or individuals not resident in the United States. Grantmakers need to be aware of a couple of general requirements, and private foundations also have an extra set of concerns to ensure that the expenditure outside the United States is not penalized as a taxable expenditure. The private foundation grantmakers also want to be sure that the expenditure does count towards its minimum distribution requirement. I'll start this series with an episode focused on introducing the Patriot Act rules that apply to all grants, international and domestic.

In the next episode of this series, I'll provide a brief overview of the income tax withholding rules that apply to payments for services that come into play when making a grant to an international organization that may provide some services in the United States.

The third installment of this series will focus specifically on the special private foundation rules, expenditure responsibility, equivalency determination, and other techniques used by private foundations that make grants to international organizations.

Show Notes:

Farella YouTube podcast channel

FINCEN Patriot Act Page

OFAC Search Tool

Anti-Terrorism Best Practices

Treasury's November 8, 2002 release of voluntary best practices guidelines for U.S.-based charities in avoiding terrorist financing. (For Treasury's Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines: Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-based Charities, see Doc 2002-25472 (7 original pages) [PDF] or 2002 TNT 221-17)

If you have suggestions for topics you would like us to discuss, please email us at [e-mail].  Additional episodes can be found at EORadioShowByFarella.com.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, nor should it be interpreted as, legal advice or opinion.