We had an EIN but no filings; I filed 4 back years of tax returns, and the IRS sent me fine notices (for late filings, at $10/day or something) totaling $11,000 ... but I wrote a nice letter of apology and the fines were waived.

First and foremost, unless you used PTO money to put a new pool in your backyard (for example), you're not in any personal jeopardy for trying to straighten out this situation. And credit to you for taking on the task where others haven't.

Worst case scenario in a situation like this has been the group gets fined by the IRS (and has to do a lot of backward accounting). But we've primarily seen that when the IRS has taken the first step — contacting the group because they're out of compliance. The IRS has told us their primary concern is getting groups in compliance, not in levying penalties on PTOs. So if you make the move to get your group in good legal order, you're probably fine.

Regarding starting over, your group is considered new for IRS purposes on the date of your incorporation. So if you plan to incorporate, you have 27 months from that date to file for 501c3 tax-exempt status. If you do it within that time period, your status will be retroactive to the incorporation date. By the way, the main advantage of incorporating is that it provides a level of protection to your board in case of a lawsuit (called the corporate shield).

Our PTO Startup Toolkit walks you through IRS form 1023 question by question, and also addresses the other major steps (including incorporation) in getting your PTO buttoned up. Here's a link:

www.ptotoday.com/startup-guide

Good luck!

So I find myself in the same boat, no taxes ever filed for 20years, we have a ein.
so what do I do? I wanna keep my house I dont want to be the one in trouble for what they didnt do, can we also start new?

Note also that it's how much you grossed (took in) -- not how much you ended up with after expenses -- that the IRS cares about.

Two questions for you--

1) Does the IRS even know you exist--meaning, do you have a tax ID number? If at one point the organization filed tax returns and they knew you existed, the tax exempt status by now has been lost, but is pretty easy to get back. If they never even knew you existed, then you can probably just start with last year's numbers.

2) What you have in the bank is somewhat irrelevant to your tax return. The more important question is how much money you took in during the year. Someone who took in $200,000 and then spent $197,000 and someone who took in $15,000 and spent $12,000 of it will both end up the year with $3,000, but will have to file entirely different types of tax returns.

Most parent groups use a fiscal year that runs from July 1-June 30 or maybe August 1-July 31 depending on what your school year is.

So we "restarted" our PTO last year after I don't know how many years it had not been active- I am new to the area.
There was almost $3000 in the account. I have NO records from anything prior to us taking over last year. It was not active and I'm not even sure they had bylaws or anything- more of a parent group, but they called themselves PTO.
Anyway- becoming non-profit really isn't cost effective for us since we only made about $900-$1000 last year and it costs so much to get your non-profit status.
I know NOTHING about filing taxes or doing anything about that- when was I supposed to do it? Was it at the end of the school year? Same as personal tax time/season? I am in California.
How do I claim what was already in the account? I don't want to get in trouble, but honestly I have no idea what I'm doing and need help/advice.
Thanks