New Requirements from the IRS

Recent Revocations (Organizations that recently lost 501c3 status for not complying)

November 2007
All chartered chapters of Veterans For Peace have an official Employer Identification Number (hereafter referred to as an EIN) as issued by the Internal Revenue Service. Consequently, all chapters are subject to IRS regulations. Heretofore provisions concerning filing annual tax returns did not apply to most of our chapters, as the threshold was $25,000. However, for tax periods beginning after December 31st, 2006, ALL VFP chapters will be required to report their income to the IRS per the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) electronically via the Form 990-N (aka the "e-postcard").

While this will prove inconvenient for some, in order to maintain our 501(c)(3) status, this is simply not something VFP, both as a national organization nor as individual chapters, can afford to ignore or haphazardly address. If you go to the following website, you can see a list of organizations whose non-profit status was recently revoked. At the risk of sounding dramatic, the future of VFP depends to some extent on us following these rules.

We realize that many VFP chapters have little if any money in a formal bank account. We also realize that some chapters may not have formalized a fiscal year and/or other financial information. Lastly we realize that some chapters may have fiscal years, which do not coincide with that of the national organization, which is now based on the calendar year (whereas previously it ended on August 31st). Please note the following information. First, in terms of this regulation, regardless of whether or not your chapter has any money, you will need to file a tax return. If your chapter has not previously determined a fiscal year, we would encourage you to adopt the calendar year. Regardless of the end of your chapter's fiscal year, the deadline for filing the e-postcard is 4 ½ months following the end of the fiscal year. Thus, if you use the calendar year as your fiscal year, you will need to file the 990N by May 15th, 2008.

In order to ensure all chapters have complied, we are asking that each chapter mail the following when the return is complete to the VFP National Office: your name and address, your chapter number and name, your bank name and address if applicable, the verification from the IRS website which states you've completed the e-postcard (print one for your chapter and one for us, please), and a rough statement of your chapter's finances (i.e. less than $10,000 or more). We are asking for that last piece in order to know which chapters we need to annually touch base with regarding filing a regular tax return (Form 990).

If you have any questions at this time, please call Cherie at the National Office (314.725.6005) or send her an email (ceichholz@veteransforpeace.net). Any and all correspondence regarding this issue should be directed to Cherie specifically.