The nonprofit pay scale is typically far from excessive, especially compared to salaries in the for-profit world. Sometimes, though, organizations get into trouble because a staff member, usually the CEO or Executive Director, is paid an excessively high salary.
No hard and fast rules exist for compensation in a nonprofit, but the IRS can penalize both an organization and an individual for excessive pay. This expectation is embodied in the inurement clause governing nonprofit organizations. Inurement means that the resources of a nonprofit must not benefit a private party. Excessive pay would violate this mandate.
Non-profit organizations are subject to what is known as the nondistribution constraint. Simply stated, this means that non-profit organizations cannot distribute profits to those who control it. The nondistribution constraint is the fundamental distinction between non-profit organizations from for-profit organizations.
In the Internal Revenue Code, the nondistribution constraint is embodied in the prohibition against inurement. “Inurement” is an arcane term for “benefit.” The inurement prohibition forbids the use of the income or assets of a tax-exempt organization to directly or indirectly unduly benefit an individual or other person that has a close relationship with the organization or is able to exercise significant control over the organization. The essence of the inurement proscription is found in the language of Code § 501(c)(3), which provides that no part of a 501(c)(3) organization’s net earnings can inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
No law in California? Look a little deeper and you’re find a law at the fed level.
wy69
Your discussion of the law is valid—but there are lots of non-profits (large and small) that violate these rules in a thousand different ways.
Among the games they play are paying themselves for professional or other services or padding the expense accounts.
The IRS would need a million more auditors to catch all of them.