I would appreciate any help with this. I am a new treasurer, and we don't want to use the school's Tax ID number. Can we apply just for an IRS tax ID number without being a non-profit? And do we still have to file taxes if we just have a tax ID #? Thanks for any advice...

BeckyJo - the others are right. You can't just change your fiscal year. Whatever it is was established when you filed the 501(c)(3) application and it's probably something in tune with the school year.

Your choices are to file late and expect a $20 per day penalty. (So if you were due in the Fall - maybe $4000.) or not to file and let the IRS assume you made less than $25K. If you go the penalty route and plead ignorance, extenuating circumstances - whatever - you might eventually get them to waive it.

I presume your last tax return was for the year ended 6/30/03. If you now file for the calendar year ended 12/30/04 the IRS would wonder where the last half of 2003 went. Besides, you do not actually operate on a 12/31 fiscal. I would file the forms for the year ended 6/30/04, and expect to get fined. Then file to have the fine abated. My impression is that if you come clean before being caught you should not have a problem getting the abatement.

We are a 501(c)(3), and take in over $25,000 annually. We meant to file for taxes, but our treasurer had a family crisis and completely forgot to do it.

Now I'm wondering if we're actually still okay. I found information in my handbook saying we are expected to file by the 15th day of the 5th month of our annual accounting period. So if we say our accounting period is Jan 1 - Dec 31 then we're still okay, right? The problem is our board goes from July 1 to June 31, not Jan to Dec. Can we file for Jan to Dec, instead?

Yes, non-profits have to file. We file either a 990 or a 990EZ. We had to do a 990 this year because we had to attach a Schedule A (I think that's what it was).

Our PTO had not filed taxes in the past. When our new principal come on board, she suggested we contact an accounting firm to find out if we have to file. It turned out that we do in deed have to report our income. Non-profits don't actually pay taxes on the profit, the IRS wants to know how much you raise. To our dismay we got socked with a $2800 penataly fee for the IRS for filing late. Our penatlies are currently under review. We are hoping to get them reversed.