[rosemarie777]

Can a 501c3 organization sell a board member's book in their shop with some money going to the author without the organization losing its 501c3 statis?

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

Taxes on 501c3 is a specialized niche of the tax field, one that I do NOT deal with.

One of the other experts MAY be able to give you a good answer on this, but I doubt it.

[ebaines]

Please clarify what you mean by "some money going to the author." Typically an author is paid a royalty by the publisher, not by the retail shop that sells books to the public. Is there some other arrangement going on here?

Any business transactions involving board members must be at fair market value - in other words if the 501(c)(3) organization buys the books at wholesale from a book publisher or distributor - just as they buy other books they may be selling - then there is really no issue. If they buy directly from the board member or his company then there must be some evidence that it's at fair market value - for example the 501(c)(3) shouldn't be paying a higher price for the books than any other book store does. Otherwise it's known as an "excess benefit transaction," and can cause loss of tax-exempt status. See this IRS web page for more info:
Intermediate sanctions - excess benefit transactions

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

ebaines once again comes through for the forum! Good job!

[ebaines]

Thanks! I've had some experience as finance chair and president of a 501(c)(3) that runs a multi-million dollar budget, and have occasionally had to dig into these types of issues.