501(c)(3) Public Information
The Internal Revenue Service grants tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3) to a wide range of charities. Tax exemption under 501(c)(3) brings with it certain responsibilities. These include the responsibility to make certain tax-related documents available for public inspection. Each 501(c)(3) must allow the public to view its Form 1023, its three most recent Forms 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N, and its Form 990-T, if it has one.
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Types
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As of April 1987, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization must provide public access to its Form 1023 and all attachments filed with the IRS. The organization must also provide public access to its Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N for each of the three most current tax years. The 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N provided for public viewing must include all supplements and attachments filed with the IRS. Finally, each organization must provide for public viewing any 990-T it has filed in the three most current tax years.
Methods
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A tax-exempt organization may make its public information available in several different ways. The organization may post the information to its own website, or it may link visitors to a separate website that hosts its Form 1023 and 990s, such as Guidestar.org. The organization may also make the information available to persons who request it either in person or by writing. For in-person requests, the forms must be immediately available. For in-writing requests, the forms must be mailed within 30 days of when the organization receives the request. The organization may charge the cost of postage, along with a copying fee of up to $1.00 for the first page and $0.15 for each additional page.
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Exceptions
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A tax-exempt 501(c)(3) is not required to make certain information available to the public, even if it is included on the Form 1023 or 990s. Internal Revenue Code 6104(a)(1)(D) states that information can be withheld if it "relates to any trade secret, patent, process, style of work, or apparatus, of the organization, if [the Secretary of the IRS] determines that public disclosure of such information would adversely affect the organization." Information that "would adversely affect the national defense" does not need to be disclosed either. Finally, if the IRS determines the organization is being harassed, the organization does not need to disclose its Form 1023 or 990s.
Penalties
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The penalty for failing to make an organization's Form 1023 and/or its 990s available to the public falls on the person who is directly responsible for maintaining the forms and making them available, not on the organization itself. The penalty is a monetary fine of $20 per day until the forms are made available, up to a maximum total fine of $10,000.
Warning
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As of tax year 2009, no 501(c)(3) is exempt from filing a Form 990, regardless of the organization's size. Nonprofits with $25,000 or less in gross receipts must now file the Form 990-N, also known as the "e-Postcard." Organizations of any size that fail to file the appropriate version of Form 990 for three consecutive tax years will have their tax-exempt status automatically revoked without notice from the IRS.
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References
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