On April 7, 2008, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
released draft instructions to the revised Form 990 income tax
return and requested public comment by June 1, 2008. The draft
instructions may be accessed here. Exempt organizations will use these
instructions in completing their annual informational returns
beginning in fiscal year 2008. Similar in form to instructions
used for years past, these draft instructions provide general
Form-wide instructions and specific line-by-line instructions.
In addition, the draft instructions include a glossary of
terms, sequencing lists (which help determine the order for
filling out the Form) and compensation tables (which help
determine how and where to report items of compensation). The
IRS's stated goal for these instructions is to make the
annual reporting obligation more logical and user friendly for
organizations, and to promote uniformity.
