Don't Buy This Book If...
...or When to Call A Professional
This book was designed to help the tens of thousands of organizations who prepare their own 501(c)(3) applications each year. Here is a summary of the activities or circumstances that make a "Do-It-Yourself" application inappropriate.
1. If your organization is one of the following:
- limited liability company or other less common type of organization
- hospital, other medical care facility, or co-operative hospital service organization
- college, university, or cooperative service organization for an operating educational organization
- 509(a)(3) supporting organization
- private foundation or private operating foundation
- home for the aged or handicapped
- successor to a for-profit entity
- charitable risk pool
- governmental unit described in section 170(c)(1)
- communal religious organization described in section 501(d)
2. If you plan to engage in any of the following activities:
- candidate nights, voter registration, or publishing of voting records
- tax exempt bond financing
- low income housing
- joint ventures
- consumer credit counseling
- downpayment assistance
- compensation through non-fixed payments
3. If your group is not different in any way from an organization described unfavorably in a Revenue Ruling.
4. If you are interested in obtaining a group ruling for your organization's affiliates.
5. If you have doubts about being able to prepare the "good faith and no prejudice to the interests of the government" arguments needed because your organization failed to file its application before the 27 month deadline.
6. If your organization does not easily meet the public support tests and needs to exclude unusual grants, or make a "10% Facts & Circumstances" argument.
7. If you receive a difficult inquiry letter, or a denial letter.
You might also consider having your application professionally prepared if you find you keep procrastinating about preparing it yourself. In any event, it is almost always a good idea to have someone knowledgeable about Exempt Organization tax law and application procedures review your application before you submit it to the IRS.
|
