[vox] Treasurer's Update - Financials and IRS Tax Filings

[G Fitzgerald]

All,

The purpose of this e-mail is to provide the group with information regarding
my interactions on with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the group’s
behalf. Apologies for the length of the e-mail, but I wanted to make sure
all of this information was documented.


Background:
After being elected to the Treasurer position in mid/late-2009, I began the
process of gathering the group’s previous financial records, which were
incomplete. With the help of Bill Kendrick, I obtained all the recorded
collections and donation information from 2005 onward, reconciled it with
the information on the website, and posted the information to the LUGOD
website (under the “Finances -> Ledger” link on the left-hand side).

The previous Treasurer provided a letter from the IRS, dated March of 2000,
which indicated that, as a tax-exempt organization 501(c)(7) with less than
$25,000 in annual gross receipts, we were not required to file tax return
information with the IRS. In reviewing information on the IRS’s website
(http://www.irs.gov), it appeared to me that, as a result of changes to tax
laws, we were required, and have been since around 2006 - 2007, to file
tax return information with the IRS.

Current Activities:
This morning, I contacted the IRS, and spoke to a Ms. Shrum (who gave the
ID Number 0196506). The following are the summary highlights of that
conversation, and other actions I took today.

1)      I have filed the Form 990-N, also known as the e-Postcard, for tax year
2009 for the LINUX USERS GROUP OF DAVIS. I have received an e-mail stating
that our filing has been received and accepted by the IRS. This completes our
tax reporting responsibilities for the 2009 tax year.

2)      In my call with the IRS, I was advised that when LUGOD failed
to file with
the IRS following the changes to the law (around 2006), the IRS sent a
letter to
LUGOD, asking why we had not filed. Our lack of response to that
letter resulted
in the suspension of the group’s tax-exempt status, effective 2006.
(Bill mentioned
that the previous Post Office Box had been closed, so it’s possible
that the older
Post Office Box was the address on file with the IRS, and perhaps we never
received the letter.) The law passed in 2006 also states that failure
to file for 3
consecutive years will result in the revocation of tax-exempt status.
As the law
was effective for the 2007 tax year, and the first time filing was
required was 2008,
our tax-exempt status would have expired in May of this year. By filing the
Form 990-N for tax year 2009, which I did today, our tax-exempt status will be
restored, a process which should take approximately 3 weeks from today.

3)      There is no requirement to file for previous years.

4)      LUGOD  owes no penalties or fines for its failure to file
taxes in previous years.
By updating our information with the IRS and filing properly this
year, we are back in
compliance with IRS regulations.

5)      LUGOD’s official tax year is the calendar year from January 1 through
December 31 of each year. (This is important for tax reporting purposes.)

6)      I have updated our mailing address with the IRS, to reflect the PO Box
opened last year. It is the group’s responsibility to advise the IRS
of any updates to
our mailing address.

7)      It is the group’s responsibility, or rather, our Treasurer’s
responsibility, to file
the Form 990-N (e-Postcard) every year.

8)      Our meeting minutes constitute an official record of our
collections and
contributions. It is crucial that we continue to keep them up-to-date.

9)      Collections taken at meetings are considered to be
“contributions.” We should
probably begin referring to them as such.

The next steps are to register/verify we are registered with the State
of California as a
tax-exempt organization, and make sure that we are current with any
state tax filing
requirements. I’ll be working with Bill Kendrick to make sure this happens.

Thank You,
Greg