Tax-Exempt Organizations Get Deadline Extension

Some tax-exempt organizations got an extra present in their Christmas stockings, with the news from the IRS that they get extra time to file their annual returns in 2012. The announcement, made Dec. 16, offered those organizations whose filing deadlines were either Jan. 17 or Feb. 15, an extension: they need not file until March 30.

Usually, according to the IRS, these deadlines would apply to organizations with a fiscal year that ended on Aug. 31 or Sept. 30, 2011, respectively. It added that the extension also applies to organizations that already obtained an initial three-month filing extension and now have an extended filing deadline that falls on Jan. 17 or Feb. 15, 2012. The majority of tax-exempt organizations will be unaffected by this extension because they operate on a calendar-year basis and have a May 15 filing deadline.

According to the agency, it is offering the extra time because the part of the e-file system that processes electronically filed returns of tax-exempt organizations will be offline during January and February. The agency stressed that the rest of the e-file system will continue to operate normally and urged all individuals and businesses to file electronically.