If you’ve been procrastinating on registering a charity as a nonprofit, your dilly-dallying is now justified.
The Internal Revenue Service just announced a streamlined process for applying for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. The new Form 1023-EZ cuts the standard Form 1023 from 26 pages to three pages.
Up to 70 percent of charities qualify to use the EZ form, according to an IRS news release. Most groups with $50,000 or less in gross receipts and less than $250,000 in assets will be eligible.
The idea behind the form is to free up resources dedicated to approving small, simple charities, so more resources can be dedicated to reviewing larger, more complex organizations. The IRS has a backlog of about 60,000 501(c)(3) applications, with wait times of up to nine months.
“Previously, all of these groups went through the same lengthy application process — regardless of size,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said in the release. “It didn’t matter if you were a small soccer or gardening club or a major research organization. This process created needlessly long delays for groups, which didn’t help the groups, the taxpaying public or the IRS.”
The Form 1023-EZ must be filed through pay.gov with a $400 user fee. Download this PDF for full details.
Photo: Lisa Horn of West Sound Wildlife Shelter releases a bald eagle. (Brad Camp / Olympic Photo Group)
