Tax-Exempt Status Could Hinge On Filing Deadline

I posted a blog earlier this week explaining how 200,000 charities and non-profits are at risk of losing their non-profit status if they do not file a return by this upcoming Monday. The deadline is quickly approaching; are you ready? While you would think this would prompt any organization at risk to act quickly, as this story from NRP asserts, many simply do not know about the looming deadline.

The requirement goes back to a 2006 law that says nonprofits with revenues of $25,000 or less have to start filing annual tax forms — something they never had to do before. The law also says that if they fail to do so for three years in a row, their tax-exempt status will be immediately revoked.

Since nonprofits have to file no later than four months and 15 days after the end of their fiscal year, the three-year deadline for many groups is May 17 (May 15 falls on a Saturday).

Tim Delaney, head of the National Council of Nonprofits, is worried that a lot of tax-exempt groups will miss the deadline. He notes that some of these organizations are run informally by volunteers.

"The concern that a lot of people have is that many smaller nonprofits — a PTA, a local Little League — will even be aware of this change in the law," he says.

Continue reading at NRP.org…

Economy Not Likely To Reprise '09 Year-End Growth

From NPR News:

The economy grew at a 5.6 percent pace in the fourth quarter of last year, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Although the growth was slightly lower than expected, it was the economy's best showing in six years.

Most economists had expected no revision in the government's third and final estimate. Last month, the department put the growth rate for output of goods and services at 5.9 percent for the October-to-December period. That's up from third-quarter gross domestic product of 2.2 percent.

The latest announcement puts the GDP closer to the 5.7 percent in the initial advance estimate at the beginning of February.

The department's Bureau of Economic Analysis chalked up the downward revision to slower consumer spending and weakness in the commercial real-estate market.

Economists had reason to question whether the economy could sustain such a steep upward trend. Much of the growth comes from businesses restocking empty shelves after months of tepid consumer demand, which is expected to improve slightly — but not significantly — in the current quarter.

Does Creating Jobs Mean Creating More Debt?

From NPR.org:

Despite all the attention given to Afghanistan this week, President Obama knows that most Americans' biggest concern is the lackluster economy. When new unemployment numbers come out on Friday, they're likely to show that tens of thousands of people lost jobs in November. So the White House is hosting a jobs summit Thursday to collect ideas about how to put people back to work.

The administration will get advice from big-business executives, small-business owners, economists, union leaders and the mayor of Allentown, Pa. Obama also plans to visit Allentown on Friday to kick off a "White House to Main Street" tour.

"We have some people who are really hurting," says Allentown's Mayor Ed Pawlowski. "We're going to talk about things they could do to help stimulate jobs and improve the economy, as far as loosening up lending, getting some credit into the marketplace."

Limited Resources

The administration has been trying to boost credit for small business with limited success. But the president has been hesitant about spending a lot more money to create jobs. He's caught in a political tug of war between those worried about rising unemployment and a rising federal deficit.

"There's one group that says we need to do more about the economy, more to create jobs," says political analyst Charlie Cook. "And then there's the other side that's saying we're blowing the heck out of the budget deficits. And so they're getting squeezed."