Is your nonprofit on this IRS list of organizations that have not yet filed their Form 990-N (e-Postcard)? If so, Uncle Sam is offering a helping hand.
It turns out that many small NPOs (those with annual revenues of $25,000 or less), who in the past did not have to file a 990 annually, are not aware of a new requirement (a result of a 2006 law) that they complete an easy-to-do email filing. Consequently, those nonprofits are in eminent danger of losing their tax-exempt status.
Basically, if your organization has failed to file for three years running (07, 08, 09), it could be out in the cold. Once tax-exempt status is revoked, a nonprofit will have to file again for its tax-exempt status.
Because so many nonprofits were in non-compliance by the filing deadline this year, the IRS has provided a one-time relief, consisting of an extension of the deadline to October 15, 2010.
The IRS said in a reminder published today that "If you are a volunteer, member or just a friend of an organization at risk of losing its exemption, please alert the organization and encourage it to go to IRS.gov and find out how the organization can come back into compliance today."
The final list of non-compliant nonprofits will be made public by the IRS in 2011. But it is very easy to comply. Just go to the IRS website, read the instructions, fill in some basic information, and click. If you went to the trouble of getting your tax-exempt status, don't let it slip away because of an oversight.
More about this IRS requirement and extension:
- IRS Offers Small Charities 'One-Time Relief' Through Extended Deadline(Chronicle of Philanthropy)
- What is IRS Form 990-N? And Who Should File It?
Photo: Peter Gridley/Getty Images
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