How to Get Premium Support to File Your 990 Form

E-filing for the first time?

Do you find yourself having multiple questions while filing?

Do you consider yourself to be non “tech-savvy?”

As the premier hub for everything tax exempt, ExpressTaxExempt continues to provide you with easy-to-use e-filing for 990 Forms and extensions for your organization to submit its tax return to the IRS. Although we’ve designed our program to be completed smoothly, we still realize that reporting to the IRS can be rather intimidating, to say the least, which is why we offer all users the option to take advantage of our exclusive ExpressTaxExempt Premium Support service.

Headquartered in beautiful Rock Hill, South Carolina, our premium support team will provide you with the following incentives during your session:

• Assistance from a live professional
• Help you fill out & complete your tax return from start to finish
• Fix any filing errors
• Provide step-by-step instructions

Make life and the e-filing process much easier by taking advantage of our Premium Support feature and scheduling a session today at ExpressTaxExempt. Upon logging into your account,  simply click “Premium Support” under the “My Account” tab in the top-right corner, select an appointment date using the calendar, and choose an available appointment time.

Contact our support team of e-file experts at 704.839.2321 for any questions or help with your e-filing experience. We’re here to assist you Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST or feel free to reach us 24/7 via email at support@ExpressTaxExempt.com.

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An IRS E-Services Blackout is Coming Up

From the IRS Quick Alerts: Mark your calendars for Thursday, June 15 through Monday, June 19!

Beginning at 6:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, June 15, and running through 6:00 a.m. on Monday, June 19, the IRS will be shutting down all e-Services while it moves them to a different platform as part of a technology upgrade. This means all e-Service applications, including e-filing and ACA applications, as well as Transcript Delivery System and TIN Matching, will be offline and unavailable during this time.

So how does that affect you?

Well, if your organization has a fiscal tax year that runs from February 1 to January 31, this mini e-Service blackout could affect your Form 990 return filing. Since your Form 990 deadline is June 15, if you plan to e-file, you’ll need to make sure to do so before 6:00 p.m. EST this coming Thursday.

Now, if you don’t believe you’ll be able to get your Form 990 e-filed by then, you’ve got a couple of options: you can e-file Form 8868 instead for an automatic 6-month extension of time to file your 990 return. It’s super short and takes no time to fill out so it’s a great option if you’ve found yourself down to the wire with your 990 reporting.

Your other option, if you think you’ll have your Form 990 complete by June 15, just not by 6:00 p.m. EST on June 15, is to e-file with us, ExpressTaxExempt, an IRS-authorized e-file provider. Since we’ve got all the technical stuff covered with the IRS, you don’t have to have the extras that are required to e-file directly with the IRS’s system. That also means when you submit a Form 990 through our program, it’s timestamped when you hit the “Transmit to the IRS” button. So if you e-file after 6:00 p.m. Thursday, and the IRS doesn’t see your return til the system is back up next Monday, they’ll still see that you submitted your return on the due date and won’t count it as late.

Of course, either way, we recommend e-filing with us! ExpressTaxExempt has Form 8868 available as well as a series of 990 Forms, including 990-N, 990-EZ, 990-PF, and the original 990 Long Form. And we do our best to make e-filing as simple and efficient as possible for you! So if you have any questions along the way, we’re here to help; just give us a call or send us an email or live chat.



Need to file the e-Postcard? Check out our new site exclusively for Form 990-N, guaranteed to have you e-filing your nonprofit’s return faster than ever before!

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Have You Seen Our New e-Postcard Site Yet??

Did ya hear? Did ya hear?!

We’ve officially launched our super-special, super-simplified site just for 990-N e-filers!

It’s epostcard.expresstaxexempt.com and it truly is the easiest, quickest, and safest way to e-file your tax-exempt organization’s Form 990-N. You see that search bar up there? Entering your organization’s EIN (Employer Identification Number) is the first of just three steps to e-filing your return with the IRS.

Once you enter your organization’s EIN, our new little site will pull up your organization’s information as the IRS has it to confirm that your organization name and EIN match, as well as your tax year and whether or not it’s time to file Form 990-N for the current tax year. From this page, you’ll also be able to see a brief summary of your 990-N filing history with the IRS.

Once you’ve selected the tax year for which you’d like to file, you’ll either be taken to your ExpressTaxExempt account or be prompted to create one so you can e-file your return. You can also take this time to update any organizational information you need to. Then, simply pay the one-time fee to transmit your return and send it off to the IRS!

Don’t need to file? There’s plenty of other stuff to do on our e-Postcard site! You can check your organization’s tax-exempt status, view our pricing and customer testimonials, and learn more about nonprofit e-filing by browsing our FAQ section.

So go check it out! And if you have any questions, you can give us a call, email us, or live chat us right from the new site!

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Miss the 990 Deadline? Here's What to Do

In case you missed it, the 990 Form deadline for calendar tax year filers was May 15!

And if you did miss it, you may be wondering, “What now?” Because, while we all know the IRS isn’t really a fan of people missing their deadlines, they are pretty adamant about making sure tax forms are filed anyway. Well we’re here to tell ya:




First, Make Sure This Was Your Deadline
Remember: the Form 990 deadline works a little differently than other IRS information returns. Rather than one set deadline for all tax-exempt organizations each year, your deadline is determined by your organization’s tax year end date. The May 15th deadline is the 990 Form due date for organizations that operate on a calendar tax year, which starts on January 1 and ends December 31 each year.

If your organization does operate on a calendar year tax year, move on to the next section for what to do next. If your organization has a tax year with a different start and end date, your deadline is the fifteenth day of the fifth month following your tax year end date.

If It Was, Complete and File Your Return ASAP
Don’t even think about potential penalties: your mission is to accurately complete your return and file it as soon as you can. Of course, if you’re e-filing the e-Postcard, you don’t need to worry about penalties; there are no immediate monetary penalties for filing Form 990-N late, but if you miss filing it for your organization for 3 years, tax-exempt status is automatically revoked.

Now, for you 990, 990-EZ, and 990-PF filers, the IRS penalty for late filing illustrates why it’s important to file as soon as possible after missing the deadline. For tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts less than $1,000,000, the IRS imposes a penalty of $20 per day for each day the return is late. In other words, the penalty for filing a few days late isn’t nearly as steep as it is for filing a few months late.

And Heads Up: You May Still Be In a Perfection Period
Now we’re going to throw out a slightly different late-filing scenario that may apply to your organization. Let’s say you did file your 990 Form a few days before or on the actual deadline, but it was rejected by the IRS for containing errors.

Luckily, even if you end up filing your corrected return after the deadline, your return may still be considered filed on time if you’ve filed within the IRS’s Perfection Period. You see, when you file a return and it’s rejected for errors, you have a Perfection Period of 10 days (5 days for Form 8868) to correct and re-transmit your return. If everything is correctly filed during that Perfection Period and your return is accepted by the IRS, they’ll consider it having been filed correctly on the date you initially filed. So if your form was rejected Friday before the deadline, you’re still within the 10-day Perfection Period and can file without receiving a late-filing penalty.

Whatever the Case, We’re Here For You
Just remember in the hustle and bustle of it all that, if things get a little too hectic, ExpressTaxExempt is here for you! We’ve got tons of information all around our site for tax-exempt organizations, and our support team is always ready to answer any questions you may have about tax-exempt e-filing or your 990 Form. So if you need us, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us a live chat or email!

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The May 15th Deadline Approaches

May day! May day!

The May 15th deadline is almost upon us!

For those of you new to the tax-exempt game, May 15 is a major deadline for 990 Forms because it’s the 15th day of the fifth month following the end of the calendar tax year. You may remember in all that paperwork to become a tax-exempt organization, it told you that you’d need to file a 990 Form by the 15th day of the fifth month after your tax year ends. And since the calendar tax year, which runs from January 1 to December 31, is used by a lot of tax-exempt organizations (“a lot” as in “most of them”), May 15 is the official unofficial 990 Form deadline!

Now, if you have a tax year that runs from, say, July 1 to June 30 (deadline: November 15) or September 1 to August 31 (deadline: January 15) or any other set of 365 consecutive days, you can disregard this deadline. But make sure you know when your tax year end date is so you can determine your actual due date for Form 990.

What Happens If I File Form 990 Late?
Ah, a good question, to be sure! If you’re required to e-file Form 990-N (the e-Postcard), there aren’t really any immediate penalties for filing late. Just be sure to get it in as soon as you can if you realize a little too late that you’ve missed the deadline. Keep in mind, though, that if you go more than three consecutive years without e-filing a 990-N (or any 990 form), your tax-exempt status will be automatically revoked by the IRS and you’ll need to apply again for it.

However, if you have to file the 990 Long Form, Form 990-EZ, or Form 990-PF, the IRS does impose penalties for filing your form late. You may be able to get out of these penalties if the organization can provide reasonable cause for why the 990 Form was filed late. If not though, the IRS will charge you $20 for each day the return is late, with the maximum penalty being $10,000 or 5% of your organization’s gross receipts, whichever is less.

And that’s just if your organization earned fewer than $1,000,000 in gross receipts for the tax year you’re reporting. If your organization had gross receipts of more than $1 million, the penalty increases to $100 per day late, with a maximum penalty of $50,000.

Can I Extend the May 15 Deadline?
If you file Form 990-N, no. But that’s just because it’s so easy: all you do is confirm your organization’s identifying information (name, EIN, address), confirm you made fewer than $50,000 in gross receipts by checking a box, and e-file.

If you file Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-PF, yes! You can use Form 8868 to get an automatic 6-month extension of time to file your 990 Form.

What’s the Best Way to File Form 990 On Time?
Why, with ExpressTaxExempt, of course! This year, we’ve launched a simplified, streamlined version of ETE for the 990-N Form. Just go to epostcard.expresstaxexempt.com and use the information from your ETE account to e-file Form 990-N in three steps!

If you need to file one of the longer forms, it’s still easiest to e-file with ExpressTaxExempt! We’ve broken down the 990 Form into a question and answer style interview to help you more accurately and easily complete your form. And if at any point you think you’ll need more time, you can e-file Form 8868 right from your account before getting back to work.

We also offer top-notch customer support right here from our headquarters in Rock Hill, South Carolina. You can call us at (704) 839-2321, send us a live chat through our website, or email us at support@ExpressTaxExempt.com and we’ll help however we can!

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