My son's wrestling booster club is supposed to file for non-profit status and there are many ideas on the fees. Does anyone know what the federal fee is for becoming a non-profit organization? I don't mean what is charged to fill out the unreal amount of paperwork, but the actual fee that the US government charges for this status. I have tried finding the information on the web with no luck.

Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated.

Michele

Michele -

Save yourself a lot of work and go to www.legalzoom.com

They will do all the paperwork for you, and, depending upon the package you select, can have it done within a few days.

Yes, there are processing charges added to the filing fees, but they are way less than hiring an attorney.

You can also try placing an ad in the local paper, asking if any attorney would be willing to do this for you on a pro-bono basis. They will sometimes waive the fees in exchange for a tax deduction, with written receipt from the organization.

Theresa

OK, I do taxes for a living. I'm not up on the nitty gritty details of exempt org filing, but I know some of the basics. First the club has to be incorporated and apply for an EIN, but maybe you've already done this since you're just talking about applying for tax-exempt status? After that, IRS Form 1023 needs to be filled out and submitted to the IRS. It appears that the filing fee can be either $300 or $750 depending upon projected gross receipts. Keep in mind that this is the IRS application fee that must accompany your application (IRS Form 1023), not the fee required to have anyone actually prepare the paperwork. Form 1023 is rather complicated and requires projected financial statements, information on directors, possible mission statements, etc to be attached. After you receive your exempt letter, you still have to consider whether or not an annual Form 990 needs to be filed each year. There may also be additional state filings depending upon what state you are in for possible sales tax exemptions or other state purposes.

Just one other note here: The IRS completely revamped this system a year or two ago, making it much more burdensome to obtain tax-exempt status and file annual 990's. Therefore, you'll probably find that most accountant and/or attorney fees have also gone up for these filings in recent years.

sugarflowers,

i think taxnerd is right,if i remember correctly that what we had to do.i think we called our courthouse and they gave us the number to call to get an EIN #, and told us what else we had to do or fill out, for our wrestling booster club. this has been a least 3-4 yrs ago so i cant remember exactly.how old is your son? what school does he wrestle for? both my sons wrestled here in corpus christi, they are both in college now,but they had a great time wrestling. my youngest went to state but didnt place. his girl friend at time (actually,she still is his girl friend) wrestled at state with him but didnt place either.she actually still wrestles at college in kentucky.we had alot of fun,but i know how stressful it can be,especially if your in charge of the booster club. i was in charge of calling businesses and asking for food donations to use for our hospitality room. we always had it stocked with food for the visiting coaches,ref's,and for people who helped in the tounaments.well hope you all have a great season!

Thank you so much for the replies. The information is very helpful. My husband is the president of the booster club and after I posted this he told me that there is an accountant that is willing to do the paperwork. They didn't seem to know the cost of things though, so thanks for that. I think they have the EIN, but we are new to the booster club stuff.

My son is going to be a sophomore and loves wrestling. He was on the varsity team as a freshman and is expected to be made one of the team captains this year. He had a great record last year in the duals - 33 wins, 27 pins. He got to go to a wrestling camp at OU this summer and they got rid of a LOT of his bad habits, so he should have a much better year this year.

Thanks again for all of the help.

Michele