Event:2017/04/10 Finance & Fundraising

Omni Finance Working Group 10 April 2017

No meeting.

= Remote Updates =

OOC Taxes
"We apologize for this late filing of 2014 and 2015 federal tax forms. The Omni Oakland Commons received its 501(c)3 Letter of Determination in August of 2016, retroactively applied to 4/2/2014. As a grassroots, all-volunteer organization with no extra funds for hiring a professional accountant, it took some time to set up our accounting system.
 * jenny sent OOC taxes on Saturday. only concern is re: the note she included about why our taxes are late (need a good excuse to avoid penalties of $20/day) - she wrote (after consulting with Jose and his coworkers Friday, who advised to keep it short):

Thank you for your understanding."

"I suggest you write a more detailed statement. I can help ghost write one but I would need to know some more specific facts as described below.  The IRS has guidelines for what it will consider good cause for filing late.  (See Internal Revenue Manual: Sec. 20.1.1.3.2 pasted below.)
 * However, Jesse replied to the same inquiry today (Monday) with the following:

This article has a good summary of the guidelines: http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2014/nov/late-filing-form-990.html

In particular, your statement should address these points (listed in the IRM):

1. What happened and when did it happen? 2. During the period of time the taxpayer was non-compliant, what facts and circumstances prevented the taxpayer from filing a return, paying a tax, and/or otherwise complying with the law? 3. How did the facts and circumstances result in the taxpayer not complying? 4. How did the taxpayer handle the remainder of his or her affairs during this time? 5. Once the facts and circumstances changed, what attempt did the taxpayer make to comply?

What I would suggest is that you cite some specific grounds (excuses) for why they were filed late, and also indicate that you have fixed the problems and intend to file timely from now on. You want to show that the late filing was not due to willful neglect - i.e. that you were trying but some circumstance prevented you from filing timely. The normal list of excuses in the IRM include death, sickness, etc. You know the various problems suffered by volunteers that you could perhaps use better than I do.

Even though a sort of "dog ate my homework" excuse sounds silly, in my experience it gives the IRS agent looking at your request something to go on. Because you are a small organization, and you are all volunteer, in my experience the IRS will be forgiving so long as you can cite some excuse. Just apologizing isn't as good as reassuring the IRS that you have fixed the problem and will comply in the future.

Let me know if you want to have a brief conversation and then I can write something, or if you want to write something that I'll look at."


 * oops :/ tho it *has* been said by a few nonprofit tax and accounting folks now that jesse is overly cautious