Questions for the Tax Lady: June 28th, 2010

Check out the following new Questions for the Tax Lady answers and feel free to ask me questions through one of the links below. You can send me an email, direct message or @ reply, and I will do my best to get an answer for you!

Question #1: I am getting married this week, do I need to notify the IRS?

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! If you are planning to change your last name, you will have to do so at your local Social Security Administration office. Once your name has been legally changed you should inform your employer and local Post Office—once all this is said and done, you will notify the IRS of your marriage and name change the next time you file a tax return by indicating that you are either filing “married filing separately” or “married filing jointly”.

Be sure to change your withholdings to reflect the change in your life circumstances.

Question #2: I want to make a donation to the oil spill cleanup efforts, but I am not sure what organizations are taking donations. Are there any of those easy text to donate numbers setup?

Yes. listed below are instructions for two organizations that are assisting with the clean up efforts. You can also make a donation online at NWF.org.

• Text GULFAID 10 to 27138 to donate $10 to Gulf Aid. Note you can replace the ‘10′ with any dollar amount you’d like to donate. Just be careful not to add an extra zero by accident.
• Text WILDLIFE to 20222 to donate $10 to help protect the wildlife in proximity to the oil spill. Donations go to the National Wildlife Foundation.

IRS Reminds Small Tax-Exempt Organizations to File e-Postcards

The IRS recently put out a new press release reminding tax-exempt organizations to file “their annual electronic informational return with the IRS by the May 15 deadline.”

This is the second year of the new requirement for tax-exempt organizations whose gross annual receipts are normally $25,000 or less to file Form 990-N also known as e-Postcards. The process is fast and easy.

The May 15 deadline applies to all small organizations whose tax year ends on Dec. 31. Organizations whose tax year is different from the calendar year must file the e-Postcard by the 15th day of the 5th month after the close of their tax year.

“The leadership of these small organizations tends to change rather frequently, so it is important to remind everyone of this filing requirement,” said Lois Lerner, director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations division. “It’s important for an organization to file. If it fails to do so for three consecutive years, it will automatically lose its tax-exempt status.”

The e-Postcard is a simple, Internet-based form that asks a few identifying questions about the organization. The e-Postcard must be filed online; there is no paper option.