Form 990, Part VI - Governance - Use of Part VI Information

 

Are all the policies and practices described in Part VI required by the Internal Revenue Code?  If not, what happens if an organization reports that it does not have such policies in place?

In general, the policies and practices described in Part VI aren’t required by the Internal Revenue Code. However, organizations are required by the Code to make publicly available some of the items described in Question 18 of Part VI. This includes the Form 990-series returns of all organizations for their three most recent tax years; the Form 1023, 1023-EZ, 1024 or 1024-A of all organizations that filed such forms on or after July 15, 1987, or had a copy on such date; and the Forms 990-T of a section 501(c)(3) organization for its three most recent tax years, if such forms were filed after August 17, 2006. The IRS will use the information reported in Part VI, along with other information reported on the form, to assess noncompliance and the risk of noncompliance with federal tax law for individual organizations and across the broader exempt sector.