The Form 990 Deadline is Approaching! Avoid IRS Penalties
Summer has never felt quite like this before, and your Form 990 due date is in July. The kids are out of online school, summer programs are melting into new shapes to fill their state’s reopening guidelines, and the pool has a lowered occupancy limit, so it’s no surprise the IRS has some new rules too.
This year, the IRS Form 990 deadline is July 15, 2020. Even though the due date has been pushed back, the penalties for forgetting to file are still as undesirable as ever.
Form 990 Penalties
Fines
If your organization misses the Form 990 deadline, the IRS will charge you $20 a day. These fines can technically rack all the way up to $10,000, but the IRS will never charge you more than 5% of your organization’s gross receipts.
Losing Tax-Exempt Status
Charges for overdue forms can be extremely expensive for your organization, but the real price to pay is losing tax-exempt status. If your organization fails to file IRS Form 990 for three years in a row, you will no longer be able to opt out of the taxes that for-profit businesses pay.
Nonprofit Public Relations
In addition to IRS penalties, fines, and endangering your status as a tax-exempt organization, failing to file Form 990 damages your reputation and your relationship with the public. Form 990’s purpose is to make nonprofits’ financial walls transparent. This arrangement promotes charitable giving and is evidence of the way your nonprofit enacts positive change in your community.
Forgot to File IRS Form 990?
If you have missed the Form 990 deadline before, it’s not too late to file. You can submit your financial information for any period within the last three years. To make filing and keeping track of Form 990 easier, you can also access any returns you previously filed and reuse that information in your current filing process.
Don’t Get Penalized by the IRS
The most proactive way to avoid IRS penalties is to file Form 990 as soon as possible. You can wait until the last minute, but if you don’t have all your information ready, you may end up missing the deadline.
Extend Your Form 990 Deadline
If you think your organization may need some extra time to complete IRS Form 990, you can apply for an automatic six-month extension with Form 8868. You need to file Form 8868 before the July 15 deadline to receive your extension. In order to avoid paying multiple filing fees, you can choose our bundle package and file Form 8868 and Form 990 for 5% less.
E-file
Not sure if your organization should e-file? Pretty soon e-filing will be an IRS requirement, but for right now, current events are also causing huge delays for paper filing. If you have a small organization and could really use a vacation, click here to find out about Form 990-N, the e-Postcard of tax-exempt filing.
With ExpressTaxExempt, filing Form 990 has never been easier. We offer Form 990 filing instructions, software that walks you right through your form, and live, friendly, U.S.-based customer support.
