Recently Asked Questions (RAQs)

A community member hosts a “free with donation” yoga class at our library, and attendees are encouraged to make a donation each class. These donations are collected by the yoga instructor who hands them to the circulation assistant and identifies it as a donation to the Friends of the Library organization. She keeps her receipts and totals the money each year, claiming these donations on her taxes as her contribution to a 501(c)3 organization (the Friends of the Library).

So my question is, does this constitute as fraud in any way? If so, will this be problematic for the yoga instructor, the Friends of the Library, or the Library itself (municipality) for hosting the event? They are collecting money from other people for providing a service and claiming all the donations collected as their own for a tax write off.

Any guidance on this will be appreciated! Perhaps a simple solution would be to re-word how this is done, saying that donations to the yoga instructor will be made to the yoga instructor and not advertised as a fundraiser for the Friends.

Thank you!

Our library gets taxpayer funding from its own line on a school district tax bill. We know this "259" funding is a recurring tax that can only be changed with approval of the voters. That said, this year the total amount remitted by the school district was reduced due to "corrections" made after the tax bills went out. We've also been told the library could have to return levy money if a taxpayer successfully challenges their assessment. Is this true? We're concerned about what such reductions could do to our annual budget.

A local artist has asked for us to become a fiscal sponsor (act as a “pass-through” organization). Is this something a public library can do?

The library is chartered as a school district public library and thus exempt from NYS sales tax. Due to a mold issue we ended up having our HVAC contractor rent two humidifiers for us, the contractor made the arrangements and we paid for the rental via the contractor. The contractor told the renting business that we were tax exempt. The renting business refuses to remove the sales tax. They claim that the sales tax exemption only applies to purchases and not rentals. I have not been able to find anything that verifies the claim of the renting agency.

We are a small municipal library serving a village of 6500 & a town population the same size. Our village trustees have decided to take our balance from the 2022-2023 fiscal year & add to the village general fund. Does New York State Education Law #259 apply here? We were told it is just the Attorney General’s interpretation of the law & does not keep the balance in the library’s possession.