Heads Up: Your Nonprofit's Tax Form May Be Due

Hey! Do you work with a nonprofit? Know someone who does?

Did you know that it may be time for that nonprofit to file its tax form with the IRS to remain a tax-exempt organization?

The Tax-Exempt Tax Form
When a nonprofit becomes a tax-exempt organization, they agree to report certain financial details to the IRS each year on a Form 990. The form and its information let the IRS know that the organization is still operating within the regulations required to remain tax-exempt. How big the organization is - and how much money it brings in for its tax-exempt purpose - determines which 990 Form is filed with the IRS:

• Form 990-N, the e-Postcard, is e-filed by organizations that receive less than $50,000 in gross receipts annually.
• Note: As an electronic form, Form 990-N cannot be paper filed and can only be e-filed.
• Form 990-EZ is filed by organizations that receive between $50,000 and $200,000 in gross receipts annually and/or have more than $200,000 in total assets.
• Form 990, the Long Form, is filed by organizations that receive more than $200,000 in gross receipts annually and/or have more than $500,000 in total assets.
• Form 990-PF, Private Foundation, is filed by tax-exempt organizations classified by the IRS as Private Foundations, regardless of total income.

Who Needs to File July 15
Here’s how the deadline for Form 990 works: it’s due to the IRS the 15th day of the 5th month following the organization’s tax year end date. For organizations that follow a normal calendar year tax schedule - January 1 through December 31 - this deadline is May 15th each year.

But not every tax-exempt organization is created the same way or even on the same timeline. Since some nonprofits become tax-exempt mid-year or work closely with industries that may follow other tax schedules, they’re able to set their tax year with the IRS to be any consecutive 12-month period. Of course, they can’t change it all willy-nilly; once they’ve set a tax year, that’s their tax year. But all of this does mean that Form 990 can pretty much be due any month of the year.

And for organizations who operate on a fiscal tax year that runs from March 1st to February 28th/29th, that month is July!

Where to File Your 990 Form
So, you’ve established that your tax-exempt organization operates on a fiscal year starting in March and ending in February. What’s next?

Well, first things first: your deadline (July 15) falls on a Saturday this year, so it’s automatically extended to Monday, July 17. But if you still don’t think you’ll be able to get everything together in time (Form 990 is known as the Long Form), you can e-file Form 8868 before then to get an automatic 6-month extension of time to file.

The best place to e-file your 990 Form is, of course, with our sister product ExpressTaxExempt. They’re the leader in the nonprofit e-filing industry because they make e-filing Form 990, 990-N, 990-EZ, 990-PF, and even Extension Form 8868, super easy - and fast! You can finish Form 990-N or 8868 in just a few minutes and their simplified, Q & A style format makes finishing the longer forms a much less daunting task. So check ‘em out: create an account and e-file your nonprofit tax return over at www.ExpressTaxExempt.com.

And if you have any questions at all about tax-exempt forms or e-filing, don’t hesitate to give them a call!