The IRS has asked EAs and other tax professionals to post this widget on our websites. If you know about a charity that might be in danger of losing its not for profit status, please click on this link to get help. Many of these organizations can resolve their issues for no cost and it only takes a few minutes. The deadline is October 15th. Thanks.
Category: Nonprofits
Urgent News for Nonprofit Organizations
The IRS will be revoking not for profit status on several nonprofit organizations that have failed to file information returns for the past three years. As of July 2010, it appears that more than 355,000 nonprofits were facing revocation. If you are involved with a nonprofit organization, you need to make sure that your organization is safe.
What happened? For decades, once an organization received a determination from the IRS that it was tax exempt, that status was final, unless specifically revoked by the IRS. Although many nonprofits do file information returns every year, small organizations with receipts of less than $25,000 were exempt. This changed with the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The PPA had a lot of provisions about taxes, but the relevant one here was that it required almost all exempt organizations to file information returns with the IRS every year starting in 2008. If an organization didn’t file for three years, then the IRS is required to revoke the tax exempt status.
If your organization loses its tax exempt status, then it will be required to pay income taxes. If it’s a charity, it will no longer be able to accept tax-deductible contributions. Revocation is serious business.
The deadline for filing was May 17th, which has already passed. Fortunately, the IRS is offering one time relief for filers of form 990N (the e-Postcard) for nonprofits with receipts of less than $25,000. And also for filers of 990EZ for organizations with receipts of less than $1,000,000 but more than $25,000. The new deadline is Octobr 15, 2010.
What can you do? First, check to see if your organization is on the IRS revocation list. Click on the link to the IRS website, scroll down to find your state and open the file. The organizations are listed alphabetically. http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=225889,00.html
If you’re on the list, then you’ll need to determine what type of filer you are and then you can go from there. Do not let your organization be a victim of “Oops, I didn’t know.” Call me, I can help.