TAX NEWS - JUNE 2010

US Tax: IRS Rule Changes

Dear John: I have a small not-for-profit organization that brings equipment and food to my homeland in Africa. I'm told that filing requirements with the Internal Revenue Service have changed. How? A.T.

Dear A.T. Because so many organizations were so small that they didn't need to file a Form 990 or 990-EZ with the IRS, the government made it even easier.

Now organizations like yours -- provided you have less than $25,000 in annual gross receipts -- can file an electronic postcard called form 990N, according to Derek Flanagan, a certified public accountant and director of Not-for-Profit Services for Lederer, Levine and Associates, Lyndhurst, New Jersey.

The due date is 4.5 months after year's end, but extensions are available. Flanagan says "organizations generally have to submit a filing with the state in which they are registered."

Each state has its own forms and you generally also have to give yours a copy of the 990.

Go to IRS.gov, find the section for charitable and nonprofits and click.