With the start of the new year, there are two legal requirements that may be required for your local society. Below is more information.

 By now your society should have received the Annual Report form from the Secretary of State to list your officers and registered agent and pay the state the $10.00 annual fee. This annual registration can be done online. www.sos.wa.gov/corps

IRS Form 990 – Before May 15th, your Form 990 is due to be filed with the IRS if you are a Tax Exempt 501(C)(3) organization. (Note: if this has not been done in the last three years, your Tax Exempt status has expired.)  The IRS has three 990 forms: the regular 990 for organizations with over $200,000 annual income, the 990EZ for organizations with income between $50,000 and $200,000, and the 990-N (Postcard 990) if your income was less than $50,000, which I assume will cover nearly all the genealogy societies in the State of Washington. The form must be filed online at www.irs.gov where you are asked two questions: (1) are you still active, and (2) did you take in less than $50,000 last year. If yes to both questions, just fill in your genealogical society’s name, address and federal ID number (should be on last year’s return ##.#######), print out the form and confirmation and you are done.

Resources – You might consider signing up for the free IRS Exempt Organizations E-Mail newsletter (https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/current-edition-of-exempt-organizations-update).

There is also an E-Mail Newsletter from Washington Non Profits (https://washingtonnonprofits.org/membership/sign-up-for-our-email-list/). Fair warning: a lot of what is in this newsletter is for large nonprofits, but they do have seminars all over Washington State that may relate to your government filing and best practices for non-profits.

I got this Legal-checklist-1 from their latest newsletter, some parts do not apply to our small genealogy societies, but many do.

Any Questions? Please comment below.