THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407310069
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
Hampton University is violating the law by failing to identify the salaries of its top administrators and highest-paid employees on its IRS 990 tax forms, the Internal Revenue Service says. And it could cost the school $5,000.
The instructions for the form say that organizations should ``show all forms of cash and noncash compensation received by each listed officer.''
However, in its 1992 tax form, Hampton University lists only a grand total, $323,189, for its officers - President William R. Harvey, secretary Sheila Maye and Vice Presidents Elnora Daniel and Leon Scott.
``It's an alternative presentation,'' Scott, the vice president for business affairs, said in an interview earlier this month. ``It's just a university practice, rather than showing individual salaries.''
Scott said the decision not to list individual salaries has been approved by Hampton's auditors and has never been questioned by the IRS since Scott came to the university in 1992.
Sam Serio, a spokesman in the IRS' Baltimore office, which handles many of the 990 forms, said he hasn't seen Hampton's entry. But he said there's no excuse for an organization not to list individual salaries on the form.
``It's a violation of the law,'' Serio said.
He said the IRS would investigate the matter. Hampton University, he said, could face a small penalty for filing an incomplete return - $10 a day up to the lesser of $5,000 or 5 percent of its annual gross receipts.
Serio said he didn't know why the school had not been questioned before about its return. But he said: ``We're looking at over 1 million charitable organizations. . . . Obviously, we would consider looking at other things that might be more fertile.''
President William R. Harvey did not return phone calls late last week. by CNB