Bank Accts/by-laws/ethics

[Zakari]

I am a board member of a 501(3)c sports org. in Texas. We have an elected president, vp, treasurer, secretary, cheer cood. and a.d. We started receiving monies in July 2011, for the upcoming football season. 1.-Treasurer did not receive any financials until recently and then it was a created document, meaning, it is not from bank, receipt book, etc. that was given to her by president. Can a nonprofit org deposit monies into a personal account? When he was questioned about it, he did add the org. name under his name on different cc. 2-there is a repayment document that has a the treasurers forged signature on it, that the president gave to one of our debitors. 3-I have asked on multiple occasions for the by-laws to this orgnization, to no avail. I have searchd Texas nonprofit laws and I am unable to come across anything specific about banking account information. As far as the document, what, if anything can be done?

[Treffen]

I am assuming that your organization is a Texas nonprofit corporation.  If my assumption is not correct, let me know and I will reply further.

In any case, it is not appropriate to have 501(c)(3) organization's funds going into a personal account.  All funds should go into an account with the EIN(Employer Identification Number, also known as the taxpayer identification number) of the 501(c)(3) organization.  Adding the name of the corporation is not sufficient.   Your board should immediately order the officers to comply and, by board resolution, can authorize the corporation's bank to reveal bank statements to board members(s) of the board's choosing.  All banks have their own "corporate resolution" forms, which means that the issue is decided by the Board of Directors. The U.S. Supreme Court stated in Davis V. United States that

"Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 permits a

taxpayer to claim a charitable contribution deduction only if the

contribution is made 'to or for the use of'  a qualified

organization"http://pages.citebite.com/m1d8r0t3t1fbb

That Court ... and the other

cases and revenue rulings provide clear guidance that under IRC

170, whether a contribution is made "to" the individual or "to or

for the use of" the charitable organization depends on whether the

organization has full control of funds and discretion as to their

use; ..and whether the organization has a legally enforceable

right to the funds.http://pages.citebite.com/c1x0m7h3w8mdo

The Texas Code sections for "Nonprofit Corporations" as of 2009 are

available at:

www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/BO/htm/BO.22.htm and speficially note at Section H, beginning at:http://bquot.com/51s the requirements as to financial reports and access to board members, such as you. Harvey Mechanic, Attorney at Law - [email protected]

P.S. This response is intended to be a general statement of law, should not be relied upon as legal advice and does not create an attorney/client relationship.