Thursday, October 10, 2024

Success On a Dreaded Task!

There is a task each year that must be completed and Tuesday was the day we appointed to get it done. In 2008 we incorporated our ministry and applied to the IRS for Boggs Family Ministries to be recognized as a 501c3. 

There is one inconvenience to being a non-church 501c3. Every year, Boggs Family Ministries is required to file one of the various versions of Form 990 with the IRS. 990 is not a tax return, but a reporting form. They want to make sure we are operating according to the regulations and not personally profiting from tax-exempt funds. 

The Form 990 is due on May 15, but we filed an extension until October 15 and that will be on us soon. We knew we would be parked by Monday with no church Tuesday so Tuesday was the day.

You may remember that we had taken a few days in September to work on our books and that was part of the preparation for the 990 EZ. All that work made the task lighter but not easy. The 990 EZ is a misnomer for sure. It is laborious and intensive and we dread it every year. 

We are now using an online service that provides online software to non-profits and it is getting easier every year. With all the numbers at hand and the repetitive information saved in the software, we were finished in a little over three hours. It was an intense three hours, but we breathed a big sigh of relief at the end.

With the online software, we pay a small fee to transmit the form electronically to the IRS and we received confirmation within a couple hours that it was received and accepted. That does not mean the IRS accepts all our numbers, but it used to be incredibly frustrating getting them to acknowledge receiving the form by mail.

Hallelujah! The dreaded task was successful! When the calendar rolls around we will do it all over again!

That is part of our life and we are thankful you stopped by today.

Davy