Taxation & Estate Planning

Tax Matters

By Darrin Mish

Non-profits Obligated to File 990

All non-profit organizations must file Form 990 with the IRS every year by May 15 to maintain their tax-exempt status. Since this year, May 15 falls on a Saturday, the deadline has been moved to May 17.

The Pension Protection Act 2006 states that the IRS is to revoke the tax-exempt status of all agencies that do not submit their Form 990 on time. As of now, there are still thousands of non-profit organizations that have not filed their forms. In Alaska alone, the number is estimated at more than 1,000. In the entire country, about 350,000 non-profit organizations have yet to submit their Forms 990.

Before the Pension Protection Act came into effect, the organizations below $25,000 in gross revenue did not have to file Form 990. But since 2006, even smaller agencies had to file, albeit a different form, 990-N which is like an electronic postcard.

For agencies intending to find out more information, refer to the IRS website, www.irs.gov.

Tracing Tax Refunds

Everyone understandably would like to receive their tax refunds as early as possible. Exactly when you can expect your refund depends on how you did your tax filing. If you submitted your tax filing electronically by the April 15 deadline, you should have received your refund by now. It normally only takes 3 days (72 hours) to be able to trace your refund through the IRS website, www.irs.gov if you had filed your returns electronically. Thus, if you did e-filing, you should have obtained your refund by last week at the latest.

But if you had filed your tax returns by mail, expect to wait for 3 to 4 weeks before your refund information gets online. After that, it takes another 2 to 3 weeks for you to receive your refund check. Again, you can look up for the status of your refund at the IRS website, www.irs.gov.

You can do a number of things on the IRS website. For example, you can see if your refund check was returned as undeliverable and update your mailing address if your refund was returned undelivered to the IRS. You can also determine when your refund is scheduled to be mailed and ask for a replacement check if you have not received your check more than 28 days after the IRS mailed it to you.

If you receive your refund later than the 6 weeks (45 days) time bar, the IRS will pay you interest at 4% (current rate) of your refund. If your tax return was amended, the IRS will not track it online. So if you made an amendment to your tax return and have not received your refund after 8 weeks or more since filing, you are advised to call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040.

Darrin T. Mish is a veteran, nationally recognized tax attorney who has focused on providing IRS help to taxpayers for over a decade. He regularly travels the country training other attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents on how to handle their toughest cases with the IRS. He is highly ranked among the top attorneys in the country, with an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and a perfect 10 on Avvo.com. Martindale-Hubbell has also honored him with a listing in their Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He is a member of the American Society of IRS Problem Solvers and the Tax Freedom Institute. With clients on every continent but Antarctica, he has what it takes to solve your IRS problems no matter where you live in the world. If you would like more information about his practice and how he can help you, please call his office at (813) 229-7100 or toll free at 1-888-GET-MISH.

Tax Matters is a post from: IRS Tax Problem Solver Blog - IRS Help

Full post as published by IRS Problem Solver Blog on May 22, 2010 (boomark / email).