ditto on critters response, when we got 501 the irs looked at the date we got incorporated not the year before!

The IRS agrees, your organization was formed as of your incorporation date, regardless of what happened before that date.

Yes--I would consider yourself a brand new organization as of the date of incorporation and not worry about any of the past stuff.

We are in the process of filing our 501(C)3 forms, and will be incorporating as the first step (applying within the next week). Although a parent group has existed for several years, they have never really been "organized". I have checkbook ledgers and scattered receipts from previous years. My question is -- can we be considered "in existence for less than 1 year" since we are just now organzing? I think this means I will only have to provide financial records for current year and projections for the next two.

Thanks for your help!!