Form 990: Mastering Its Unique Characteristics [EO-F990]

Eve Borenstein has served the nonprofit sector for 39 years as an exempt organizations (EO) tax lawyer, sector advocate, and instructor to those who serve the sector.  She practiced law from late 1988 until joining Harmon Curran in 2019 through her own firms: Tax Exempt Law Office of Eve Rose Borenstein, LLC and BAM Law Office LLC. Her first EO work was a 2-1/2 year stint at then-Ernst & Whinney's Minneapolis Tax Department from 1985-1988). Her law practice has been dedicated to serving tax-exempt organizations and taxable nonprofits on both their federal tax compliance needs as well as the mandates imposed by both state and non-tax federal statutes. Eve represented more than 1,100 tax-exempt organizations before the IRS on everything from field audit examinations and tax controversy matters to exemption applications, and from providing Form 990 reviews and guidance to handling private letter ruling (including sub-classification determinations) requests. While she has always enjoyed direct IRS representation, what she found most rewarding was assisting clients on practical approaches to handling tax planning, structural and/or relationship issues, and internal governance needs. Eve now is almost completely retired from law practice has a small number of clients she still serves.

Eve has long been committed to expanding exempt organizations’ access to quality legal and accounting assistance, improving the IRS’s procedural intersections with the sector, and increasing the availability of pro bono help to charitable organizations, especially small organizations. Her efforts in these directions have been undertaken via various professional committee platforms, including both the Exempt Organizations and Pro Bono Committees of the American Bar Association's Tax Section and the TEGE Exempt Organizations Council (from which she long-captained the Council's thrice-yearly "EO Update Panel" which brings practitioners' questions to the IRS's Exempt Organizations Division Director and also informs the Director of pressing issues and concerns as they arise). Eve led the TEGE EO Council’s five-month effort to provide a Report to the IRS on the pressing need to address infrastructure deficiencies affecting the EO portion of the Business Master File (BMF) now and in ultimately designing replacement computer technology for the BMF.  Her semi-retirement has not altered her commitment to mobilize practitioners and the sector to advocate for reforms called for in the resulting Report (which reads like a story): TEGE EO Council 3-29-2024 Report on EO BMF Issues (w-o Appendices).

Eve has also been a prolific course instructor and speaker on exempt organization (EO) mandates. From 1990 forward, she authored and instructed Form 990 preparation courses and EO Compliance courses available through 20+ State CPA Societies. Two of her full-day Form 990 courses, co-authored with CPA Jane Searing, were offered through the AICPA from 2011 - 2018. Eve was formally introduced as the “Queen of the 990” when testifying on the form’s efficacy before Congress in July 2012(!). She  continues to offer her vast catalog of exempt organization training materials to professional advisors and nonprofits through her  training/teaching consultancy, Eve Rose Borenstein, LLC.

Eve has resided in MInneapolis, MN since she left the East Coast (note that she still considers herself an ex-pat NJ-ian) to attend law school (summa cum laude, University of MN, 1985) after a lengthy college career (Brown University, 1973-74, University of Rhode Island, 1979-1981). She and her wife have two adult children who reside close by, along with two grandchildren under the age of five who have made retirement a blast. Eve urges others who are slow walking their retirement to take the plunge faster than she did!