School PTA Board help/question

[McKelly]

I have been elected to President of the PTA at my kid's school this year and to start the school year off right, I have been informed that our school needs to file a 501(c)(3) certificate, otherwise we are going to be taxed as a corporation instead of a non-profit. This paperwork needs to be filled out and sent in with $750.00 and the last three years of financials. Our school has been inactive in the IRS's eyes for who knows how long...........................Okay...........great.

What does this mean? To those of you who have filed the 501c3, do you have to pay the $750.00 every year? The treasurer who has the papers said it is causing her great stress and she needs someone else to fill the papers out, are they that difficult, or do your schools have an accountant fill them out. The school district's financial manager says he is not familiar with it (really?). Are there IRS rules we should have been following? I think this is going to be a headache, or is it not that bad?

Anybody have any suggestions/comments/ideas? Thanks.

 

[horseshowmom]

Does this help any?

http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=96103,00.html

http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/index.html

 

[disykat]

Is your district level PTA helpful? Do you have a service team available to you? The school district (at least in my case) is totally separate from PTA and really has no clue about PTA stuff.

I was amazed at the network available to help PTAs that I wasn't aware of until I was in leadership. If you can't find help locally, your state PTA office should be able to help you.

I've been out a few years, so I'm no help. My experience was that I was sort of handed the position and ran with it, not really realizing how much training and help was available to me until the END of the year when I attended the state convention.

 

[kidzmom3]

we had a lawyer do the paperwork for our 501c3 booster club. The details are complex and the rules very strict. We also have a parent who is a CPA file our federal paperwork every year.