Finance – Page 4 – Adaptistration

Double Check That Sales Tax

Wednesday, October 31st, 2018 by Drew McManus

While most nonprofit organizations are also tax-exempt, that doesn’t mean all your current vendors have the necessary documentation to make sure you don’t inadvertently get charged sales tax. One big change in how all this works is the June 21, 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair that now requires most remote sellers (think email marketing providers, web providers, etc.) to begin collecting sales tax in certain states. It’s quite …

Understanding The Importance Of Legacy Costs

Friday, March 30th, 2018 by Drew McManus

Anyone working in the labor side of things inside the orchestra and opera fields knows how much impact legacy costs have on an institution’s expense structure. Larger budgets typically mean larger legacy costs, especially pension obligations. And while that’s not going to be changing anytime soon, legacy costs in other departments have been creeping up over the years. A good example is the total cost of ownership for web-based platforms. These …

AFM Musicians Charge Pension Mismanagement In Class Action Lawsuit

Wednesday, January 8th, 2020Monday, August 7th, 2017 by Drew McManus

One major development we missed last week amid the orchestra compensation reports was the class-action lawsuit filed against a host of defendants associated with the American Federation of Musicians & Employers’ Pension Fund (AMF-EPF). Filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the suit brings action against the defendants for “for breach of fiduciary duties and other violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. § 1001, et seq.” …

AFM-EPF News Continues To Look Grim

Monday, July 24th, 2017 by Drew McManus

At the beginning of July, 2017 the American Federation of Musicians & Employers’ Pension Fund (AFM-EPF) distributed a notice informing members the Plan continues to be in critical status and “it remains likely that the Plan will become critical and declining at some point in the future, perhaps as early as…April 1, 2018.” For the most part, AFM-EPF Trustees adopted a “here’s what the problem is and what we would like …

Granny’s On The Grift? Tell Me It Isn’t So.

Friday, April 21st, 2017 by Drew McManus

There’s a fascinating article by Joe Patti at ArtsHacker that examines the problems related to just how easy it is for employees, even volunteers, to embezzle from nonprofit performing arts organizations. I can’t think of a year that’s gone by since Adaptistration started where there weren’t one or more instances of an employee stealing from the institution. Every couple months the treasurer tells our board of directors how easy it would …