ABC Taxes, Tips & Tools

Its not just peo­ple and busi­ness­men who have prob­lems get­ting their taxes done.  Tax-exempt orga­ni­za­tions, espe­cially small ones that rely heav­ily on vol­un­teers are very much at risk of for­get­ing to file their infor­ma­tion returns. Some­times the exist­ing staff is com­pletely unaware they have this obligation.

On July 28, 2010 the IRS announced a pro­gram designed to help cer­tain tax-exempt orga­ni­za­tions retain their tax-exempt sta­tus.  Tax-exempt orga­ni­za­tions that do not file their infor­ma­tion returns (Form 990-N, Form 990-EZ etal) for 3-years will auto­mat­i­cally lose their tax-exempt status.  The IRS is pro­vid­ing one-time relief for such orga­ni­za­tions that have fil­ing due dates on or after May 17 and before Octo­ber 15, 2010.

There are links to pdfs (and excel files) which list the orga­ni­za­tions at risk of los­ing their sta­tus listed alpha­bet­i­cally, state by state on the IRS web­site.  The list includes orga­ni­za­tions for which the IRS does not have a record of a required annual fil­ing for 2007 and 2008, and whose 2009 return, due on or after May 17 and before Octo­ber 15, 2010, has not yet been received.  The list, which was gen­er­ated on June 30, 2010, includes only orga­ni­za­tions with an annual fil­ing require­ment. Cer­tain exempt orga­ni­za­tions are exempt from this require­ment.  Note: Click­ing on the link takes you to the IRS.gov web­site; ABC LLC is not affli­ated with IRS.gov-you will be sub­ject to their poli­cies, not ours, and we do not know what those poli­cies are. 

Accord­ing to the IRS, their list may be incom­plete, as cer­tain orga­ni­za­tions may be at risk of auto­matic revo­ca­tion even if their names do not appear on these lists:

• Sub­or­di­nates in group rul­ings for which the par­ent has not filed a required group return;
• Very small sec­tion 501©(3) pub­lic char­i­ties not required to file an appli­ca­tion for exemption;
• Other sec­tion 501© orga­ni­za­tions not required to file an appli­ca­tion for exemption

These orga­ni­za­tions should check their records and deter­mine whether they are at risk of auto­matic revo­ca­tion because they have not sat­is­fied annual fil­ing requirements.

In addi­tion, the list may include orga­ni­za­tions that were required to file Form 990 or Form 990-PF. These orga­ni­za­tions are NOT eli­gi­ble to take advan­tage of this one-time IRS fil­ing relief to bring them into compliance.

Note: If you donate to one of these orga­ni­za­tions you can rely on an orga­ni­za­tions deter­mi­na­tion let­ter or list­ing in IRS Pub­li­ca­tion 78 to deduct con­tri­bu­tions until the IRS pub­lishes notice on IRS.gov that the orga­ni­za­tions exempt sta­tus has been revoked. 

As you browse the lists you will see it con­tains every­thing from Amer­i­can Legion posts, artist guilds, orga­ni­za­tions that help ani­mals, orga­ni­za­tions that help chil­dren, postal work­ers unions, fra­ter­ni­ties, soror­i­ties, etc.  If you see one of your pet char­i­ties on these lists urge them to take advan­tage of this pro­gram so they can con­tinue to do their good work. Spread the word. 

As always, small busi­ness ser­vices and tax­a­tion are our busi­ness.  If you need help Please give Art & Busi­ness Con­sult­ing a call.  We would love to engage you as a client.

The usual dis­claimers: Although ABC has made every effort to insure the accu­racy of Taxes, Tips and Tools, mis­in­for­ma­tion, dis­in­for­ma­tion, changes, mis­takes, typos and hack­ers hap­pen, there­fore Art & Busi­ness Con­sult­ing LLC takes no respon­si­bil­ity for any action taken or results based on the infor­ma­tion sup­plied here in. The con­tent of this blog gen­er­ally applies to busi­ness and indi­vid­ual tax­a­tion in the United States of Amer­ica.  Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice Cir­cu­lar 230 Dis­clo­sure:  As pro­vided for in Trea­sury reg­u­la­tions, advice (if any) relat­ing to fed­eral taxes that is con­tained in this com­mu­ni­ca­tion (includ­ing attach­ments) is not intended or writ­ten to be used, and can­not be used for the pur­pose of (1) avoid­ing penal­ties under the Inter­nal Rev­enue Code or (2) pro­mot­ing, mar­ket­ing or rec­om­mend­ing to another party any plan or arrange­ment address herein.  Art & Busi­ness Con­sult­ing LLC cur­rently does not have a cer­ti­fied pub­lic accoun­tant, human resource spe­cial­ist, finan­cial plan advi­sor or an attor­ney on staff; this infor­ma­tion is purely for edu­ca­tional pur­poses and not to be con­strued as legal or finan­cial advice. Art & Busi­ness Con­sult­ing LLC and its employ­ees, mem­bers and asso­ciates are not engage to prac­tice law; you always should dis­cuss legal mat­ters with your attor­ney before talk­ing to any­one else.