Business Practices

Name: Davis Malm & D’Agostine, P.C.
Address: One Boston Place., Boston, MA, 02108, United States
Telephone: +16173672500

Nonprofit & Tax-Exempt Organizations

Our nonprofit and tax-exempt business attorneys help organizations navigate their unique regulatory, tax, governance and administrative issues, so they can focus on achieving their social goals.

We advise religious organizations, schools, museums and art associations, housing cooperatives, public and quasi-public financing agencies, public charities and grant-making private foundations.

BUSINESS PRACTICES

Rob Munnelly, Courtney Simmons and Richard Hindlian

We counsel on:

entity creation, including applying for federal tax-exempt status and securing local tax exemptions
regulatory compliance, especially as mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
corporate governance
fundraising
grant-making
employee benefits
“unrelated” activities issues, and planning for and reporting unrelated business taxable income (UBTI)

Results

Outcomes we can be proud of.

Using the Dover Amendment, which exempts religious and educational nonprofit organizations from certain zoning restrictions, counseled a local church facing neighborhood claims of zoning prohibitions in its efforts to build a new building.
In a local permitting matter, successfully represented a national religious and teaching organization that encountered organized neighborhood opposition.
Obtained a “public charity” designation for several nonprofit clients.
Assisted a private school in the “change of use” of its building, financed with tax-exempt bonds.
Assisted a nonprofit temple in expatriating funds for its foreign mission.
Helped a church maintain its tax-exempt status and property tax exemptions during the relocation of its main facility.
Assisted a religious association in the tax-free sale of its temple building.
Advised a nonprofit social club on how to receive a large donation for capital improvements to its clubhouse while avoiding any tax or loss of its tax-exempt status.
Participated as counsel in over 400 tax-exempt bond issues by the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency (MDFA) to finance and refinance nonprofit organizations, including schools, colleges, human services providers, nursing homes, museums, YMCAs, affordable housing and others. The total principal amount of these bonds exceeds $1.5 billion.
Negotiated the purchase by a nonprofit corporation of a Montessori school scheduled for closing by the Archdiocese of Boston, and the relocation and reconstruction of the school financed with tax-exempt bonds.
Rescued a nonprofit pre-school closed by court order for an alleged zoning violation by reorganizing the school as a nonprofit corporation subject to the Dover Amendment. Attorney fees were awarded to the school by the Appeals Court.