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The NonProfit Times - Weekly

Monday, February 7th, 2005

News Updates

NCCS Makes 990 E-filing Available

Tax-exempt organizations can file their information returns for tax year 2004 electronically via a new free Web service launched by the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS).

Last year, more than 450,000 organizations sent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) paper copies of Form 990, the annual information return for tax-exempt entities. With 990 Online -- available at http://efile.form990.org/ -- these organizations can file returns with the same ease and accuracy enjoyed by individual taxpayers who e-file.

Earlier this month, the IRS released regulations requiring certain tax-exempt organizations to e-file their information returns. Although the rule does not go into effect until 2006, many nonprofits can get a head start this year by e-filing through NCCS’s 990 Online.

“The 990 Online makes it easy for both large and small organizations to complete their Form 990s or 990-EZs,” said Linda Lampkin, NCCS program director. “It calculates totals, includes nearly 50 standard attachments, provides line-by-line links to IRS instructions and to tips from a CPA specializing in nonprofits, and verifies the accuracy and consistency of the return. It also creates PDF files for printing or distributing.”

NCCS, a program of the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, is a national clearinghouse of research data on the nonprofit sector in the United States.

The benefits of e-filing, said Lampkin, include heightened efficiency and accuracy, a streamlined reporting process, and the eventual availability of nonprofit reporting forms at one easily accessible location.

E-filing will increase nonprofit accountability by enabling donors, watchdog groups, policymakers, and others to better assess how well nonprofits are operating, said Lampkin. Also, such organizations as GuideStar, state charity offices, NCCS, and the IRS will be able to stop keypunching information and focus their resources on using the data, especially the improved organizational finance and performance information.