From BenefitsBryanCave.com

With the benefits community waiting with baited breath to hear how the Supreme Court will rule on health care reform, it is easy to get behind on IRS guidance. Since the IRS has not stopped issuing guidance, we wanted to alert you to a few minor changes that may have flown under the radar:

• IRS issued a revised Form 2848 in March 2012. The March 2012 version of Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative,  can only cover one taxpayer; thus, separate Form 2848s should be completed for joint or multiple taxpayers. According to an Employee News Release dated June 8, 2012, beginning March 1, 2012, the IRS’s three Centralized Authorization File processing sites:
• Discontinued processing all powers of attorney that are not submitted on either the October 2011 or March 2012 versions of the Form 2848 (unless a
  

On June 22, the IRS released its Exempt Organization Newsletter, Issue Number 2012-12. Topics include the following:

On June 8, the IRS released its Exempt Organization Newsletter, Issue Number 2012-11. Topics include the following:

• New ACT members named; annual report issued
• News for credit unions on auto-revocation
• Churches and Religious Organizations webinar planned July 25
• Register to attend an IRS Nationwide Tax Forum this summer
• Register for an upcoming IRS workshop for charities

Section 502 of the Code provides that an organization with the “primary purpose of carrying on a trade or business for profit” is not exempt under Section 501 “on the grounds that profits are payable” to exempt organizations.  This section was enacted in 1950 and revoked the destination-of-income test that previously had permitted commercial organizations to be exempt on the grounds that they donated their profits to other charities.  Of course, a trade or business may otherwise constitute an exempt activity (such as the educational activities of an exempt school or the health care activities of an exempt hospital).  But Section 502 makes it clear that if the activity is not by itself exempt