An IRS E-Services Blackout is Coming Up

From the IRS Quick Alerts: Mark your calendars for Thursday, June 15 through Monday, June 19!

Well, if your organization has a fiscal tax year that runs from February 1 to January 31, this mini e-Service blackout could affect your Form 990 return filing. Since your Form 990 deadline is June 15, if you plan to e-file, you’ll need to make sure to do so before 6:00 p.m. EST this coming Thursday.

Now, if you don’t believe you’ll be able to get your Form 990 e-filed by then, you’ve got a couple of options: you can e-file Form 8868 instead for an automatic 6-month extension of time to file your 990 return. It’s super short and takes no time to fill out so it’s a great option if you’ve found yourself down to the wire with your 990 reporting.

Your other option, if you think you’ll have your Form 990 complete by June 15, just not by 6:00 p.m. EST on June 15, is to e-file with us, ExpressTaxExempt, an IRS-authorized e-file provider. Since we’ve got all the technical stuff covered with the IRS, you don’t have to have the extras that are required to e-file directly with the IRS’s system. That also means when you submit a Form 990 through our program, it’s timestamped when you hit the “Transmit to the IRS” button. So if you e-file after 6:00 p.m. Thursday, and the IRS doesn’t see your return til the system is back up next Monday, they’ll still see that you submitted your return on the due date and won’t count it as late.

Of course, either way, we recommend e-filing with us! ExpressTaxExempt has Form 8868 available as well as a series of 990 Forms, including 990-N, 990-EZ, 990-PF, and the original 990 Long Form. And we do our best to make e-filing as simple and efficient as possible for you! So if you have any questions along the way, we’re here to help; just give us a call or send us an email or live chat.

Need to file the e-Postcard? Check out our new site exclusively for Form 990-N, guaranteed to have you e-filing your nonprofit’s return faster than ever before!