The Internal Revenue Service announced this week a special relief program for smaller non-profit organizations who have yet to file tax returns.
According to an IRS release, about 3,700 organizations in Kansas, including about 40 in Leavenworth, have not filed required returns for any of the past three years. If the organizations do not file by the extended deadline of Oct. 15, they risk losing their tax-exempt status.
“Here’s why relief is needed,” stated IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman during introductory remarks at an 990 filing extension conference call on July 26. “Back in 2006, Congress passed legislation mandating that all tax-exempt organizations, except churches and church-related groups, file annual returns with the IRS starting in 2007. This meant that very small organizations that had never filed before would have to start doing so.”
Michael Devine, an IRS spokesman for Kansas and Missouri, said the IRS has sent out more than a million letters and launched a media campaign since the law was passed, trying to help get the word out to those groups who needed to file a return.
“But even with that effort, we found when we got to May 17, the first date that would trigger the three-year rule, we found that many organizations still had not filed a return,” Shulman said.
Smaller charities whose gross receipts are $25,000 or less can use the Form 990-N, the e-postcard, by listing eight different items and filing electronically. Larger organizations can use the Form 990-EZ to file their delinquent returns and pay a small fee. Those larger organizations who would use the Form 990 or private foundations using the Form 990-PF are not eligible for the relief measures.
Devine said some of the groups on the list of those that had not filed as of June 30 might not exist any longer and have not informed the IRS. He said others might possibly think that they were part of a larger “umbrella organization” that would have filed returns on their behalf.
But the lists, he said, that were compiled and released for each state hope to clear that up.
“If the name’s on the list, then they need to do something,” Devine said.
According to Schulman, the relief program is for the benefit of the organizations themselves, not the IRS.
“It’s much easier to file the return than to lose your status and have to reapply,” Devine said.
Visit http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=225889,00.html for a list of charities, by state, that still need to be brought into compliance. Files are available in PDF and Microsoft Excel formats.
