Coronavirus and Charity Registrations: Update for May 8, 2020

State charity offices have been quick to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now concerned with the promotion of public health, these officials are taking steps that impact your nonprofit’s state registrations. In the interest of keeping our clients informed, we are sharing these updates with you.

IRS Form 990 Deadline Extended to July 15, 2020

Effective April 9, 2020, the IRS has extended the due date of Form 990 returns. Per Notice 2020-23, if your organization’s deadline for Forms 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF, and 990-BL falls between April 1, 2020 and July 14, 2020, your new extended deadline is July 15, 2020.

For a full list of forms and filing deadlines affected, visit the IRS’s Taxpayer Relief page.

Because many state charitable registration due dates fall on May 15, 2020, organizations with tax years ending June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2020 should pay special attention.

If you can safely do so, consider completing your 990 and financial statements by the original IRS due date to avoid late fees with state agencies. At this time, many states are still enforcing their original deadline.

Impact of Federal Extension on State Charitable Registration Deadlines

Many states are granting temporary extensions of renewal deadlines for registered charities. Others are offering relief by accepting electronic signatures and removing notary requirements. If you are uncertain about filing on time in your state, keep reading or contact your state agency directly.

We are in the beneficial position of being in direct contact with state charity offices, even when public notices are not posted online. Below, we have compiled a schedule of state-by-state updates.

You’ll note that some states are not recognizing the federal extension at this time. Failure to submit the state renewal forms, Form 990, and other required attachments by the original due date is likely to result in late filing fees.

Disclaimer: The data in this table are current as of the date of this article. We make specific reference to the common deadline of 5/15/2020 for June and December tax year filers. Your organization may have reporting deadlines and circumstances independent of the general information provided to us by state agencies.

State	Normal Due Date	COVID-19 Extended Due Date	Notes from State Charity Official
Alabama	3 months after charity’s tax year ends	Unchanged	“The expiration dates are still in effect but we are willing to work with each charity in these uncertain times. Extensions can be requested if there is not an extension already in place.”
Alaska	8/31/2020	Unchanged	No plans to grant additional extensions at this time, but there are no late fees.
Arkansas	6 months after charity’s tax year ends	Unchanged	Harbor Compliance note: Arkansas officials have not posted information on their website or responded to our inquiries. However, the state does not enforce penalties or late fees for filing after their deadline.
California	5/15/2020	7/15/2020	The Registry of Charitable Trusts does honor ALL IRS extensions. The new due date to file with the IRS will become the due date to file with the Registry. The Registry status will remain current unless the filing has not been received by the final IRS due date. Please wait until the 990 is complete and submit all of the documents together.
Colorado	5/15/2020	8/15/2020	All registrant reports and filings that were or are due to the secretary of state between April 1, 2020 and July 15, 2020 are now due by August 15, 2020. If you have any questions concerning these rules please email charitable@sos.state.co.us or sos.rulemaking@sos.state.co.us.
Connecticut	5/31/2020	Unchanged	“[The COVID-19 pandemic] has no impact on our renewal dates. We are going to be very lenient with the assessment of late fees. Connecticut already has a 6 month extension for financial documents already built into the renewal date unlike other states. For example, a charity with a fiscal year end for December 2019 does not renew until November 30, 2020.”
District of Columbia	Based on registration date of applicant	Undefined	Any business licenses, professional/occupational licenses, vending licenses, etc. that expire during the declared emergency will be considered valid, and people will have until 45 days after the declared emergency is over to renew their licenses (90 days for special police officers). All late fees and penalties will be waived for those who complete the renewal within 45 days of the end of the emergency.
Florida	Based on registration date of applicant	Unchanged	It does not affect the renewal application because the charity already has the opportunity to request the 180 day extension for the financials.
Georgia	Based on registration date of applicant	Conditional	Charities with renewals due between 3/1/2020 and 4/30/2020 are relieved from the requirement to file financial statements when registering or renewing their charity registration so long as they file said financial statements not later than 6/30/2020. Charities that plan to use the extended deadline for submission under this order must be unable to meet the requirement due in some way to COVID-19 and must email the Secretary of State explaining the reason they could not meet the requirement and provide an estimation of when financials will be available.
Hawaii	5/25/2020	Conditional	Annual reports are due within 10 business days of when the organization filed their Form 990/990EZ with the IRS.
Illinois	6 months after charity’s tax year ends	Unchanged	For June 30 tax year end organizations, if they filed the two extensions (as normally prescribed), then no additional penalty will be assessed if filed through July 15, 2020.
Kansas	6 months after charity’s tax year ends	Unchanged	Kansas does not allow for extensions. Applicants can submit KS Form FS as a placeholder until the 990 is complete. In any case, the state does not assess late fees for filing after the due date.
Kentucky	5/15/2020	7/15/2020	“The IRS extension is acceptable to our office for filing of Form 990.”
Louisiana	Based on registration date of applicant	Unchanged	Louisiana does not require the IRS Form 990 for annual registrations.
Maine	11/30/2020	Unchanged	Harbor Compliance note: Renewal filings are due November 30 for all organizations. No information currently exists regarding extensions along that timetable.
Maryland	5/15/2020	Undefined	Annual registration and reporting deadlines for charities and professional solicitors have been extended to 30 days after the state of emergency is terminated.
Massachusetts	5/15/2020	Undefined	Because of widespread disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Non-Profit Organizations/Public Charities Division is automatically extending by six months the filing deadlines for all annual charities filings for fiscal year 2019. This extension is in addition to automatic six-month extensions that many charities are granted. See “How to Submit Charities Filings” for more information.
Michigan	7 months after charity’s tax year ends	Unchanged	“We are working with our IT department to extend all of the FYE 6/30/2019 registrations out 90 days. So far we haven’t heard anything back about whether this is feasible so for the time being we are handling on a case-by-case basis. If you have an organization that will need the extra 90 days just let me know and for now I will do the extensions manually. If you have numerous ones then you can just send us a list of names and file numbers, you don’t have to send them individually like the regular extensions.”
Minnesota	5/15/2020	9/15/2020	The Minnesota Attorney General is granting an automatic 4-month extension for any filings due between April 15 and July 15, 2020.
Mississippi	5/15/2020	7/15/2020	Charities with a 5/15/2020 renewal date are now automatically extended to a 7/15/2020 due date.
Missouri	Most organizations are exempt	N/A	N/A
Nevada	Based on registration date of applicant	Unchanged	Due dates are not affected. Nevada requires a filing of some kind by the expiration date in order to keep the registration active.
New Hampshire	5/15/2020	7/15/2020	If the entity has already filed an extension so that its due date is April or May, we will grant it until 7/15/2020, but the organization needs to notify us.
New Jersey	6 months after charity’s tax year ends	Unchanged	“The Charities Registration & Investigation Act already allows eligible and compliant organizations the opportunity to request an extension of an additional 180 days to file their renewal registration. A determination will be made at a later date if extensions past the 180 days are necessary due to the COVID 19. In the meantime, we suggest that any organizations that are eligible to file the usual extension do so at their earliest convenience. Attached you will find copies of the DCA Portal Filing Instructions as well as a list explaining the statuses used in the portal itself. The link for the signature/certification page is located in the instructions. Also, IRS 990 Forms and certified audits are only requested by the DCA Portal if your organization meets the audit threshold and/or filing requirements of the Internal Revenue Service. Be advised, there are no PDF versions of the now obsolete CRI/400 form (extension request form). Filing an extension online will generate an “extension pending registration” status. No other verification of extension approval is given due to the fact that only organizations that are eligible to file extensions will see the extension option. Please review this information carefully. It will assist you filing extensions and renewals in addition to helping in understanding the information used in the DCA Portal. If you have any additional questions, please call our hotline at (973) 504-6215 for further assistance.”
New Mexico	6 months after charity’s tax year ends	Conditional	“We simply request that an extension is requested on the orgs COROS page. Some organizations will not need an extension and some will. Requests can be done easily in less than 60 seconds on COROS.”
New York	5/15/2020	Conditional	The Charities Bureau currently grants to all registered charities an automatic six-month extension of the deadline for filing an annual financial report. Therefore, for example, organizations whose year-end was June 30, 2019 are required to file their annual financial reports by May 15, 2020. However, any organization whose filing deadline, including the automatic six-month extension, falls after February 15, 2020 will be given an additional six-month extension to file its annual financial reports.
North Carolina	5/15/2020	7/15/2020	Every entity has the capability to extend their renewal requirements up to a total of 90-days. If all the extensions have expired, late fees will still incur. Harbor Compliance note: North Carolina already grants an automatic 60 day extension to all filers. An additional 30 days can be requested (until August 15) by submitting Form 8868.
North Dakota	9/1/2020	Unchanged	Harbor Compliance note: Renewal filings are due September 1 for all organizations. No information currently exists regarding extensions along that timetable.
Ohio	5/15/2020	7/15/2020	The June 30 FYE deadline of May 15 has been extended to July 15, 2020 with our office.
Oklahoma	Based on registration date of applicant	Unchanged	Oklahoma requires a filing of some kind by the expiration date in order to keep the registration active. No extensions are granted. The organization can submit the previous year’s information as a placeholder.
Oregon	5/15/2020	8/15/2020	“Our office is automatically extending the due dates for the CT-12/CT-12F/CT-12S annual financial reports and increasing the maximum extension period so that all reports that were or are due between March 15, 2020 and July 15, 2020 are now due by August 15, 2020. For those organizations that are eligible for a longer extension, please submit your extension request on or before August 15, 2020. For example, if your organization’s 2019 report is initially due on May 15, 2020, please file an extension request by August 15 if you would like to extend the deadline to November 15, 2020.”
Pennsylvania	5/15/2020	8/17/2020	Due to the COVID-19 emergency, the following charitable organization registration renewal deadlines, which fall between April 30, 2020, and July 31, 2020, are extended for three months, with the renewal of each registration required to be postmarked by the 15th day of the 14th month following the close of the organization’s fiscal year.
Rhode Island	Based on registration date of applicant	Unchanged	“That is not an applicable factor to our process as we already do grant all charitable filers a filing extension upon request. Just email an extension request; either a form 8868 or a .pdf letter request will suffice.”
South Carolina	5/15/2020	7/15/2020*	For those organizations with a FYE of (for example) June 30 who extended the due date for the financial report from November 15, 2019 to May 15, 2020, they must file no later than July 15th and do not need to request that extended due date.For those organizations with a FYE of (for example) December 31 that are due on May 15, 2020 will need to request an extension or file one online only if you will not have the report filed by the federally extended due date. If the IRS extends again to August 15th we will follow suit.If a May 15th organization knows they need until November 15th to file the financial report go ahead and request the extension now, the extended date of July 15th does not extend the due date past November 15th. *Harbor Compliance note: South Carolina has two filings due each year, a registration renewal and an annual financial report. Registration renewals are not extended because they do not require financial information. Only the annual financial reports are extended.
Tennessee	6 months after charity’s tax year ends	Unchanged	Calendar year filers can take advantage of Tennessee’s 150 day extensions, which can be submitted online. June fiscal year end organizations are currently not eligible for further extension until the Tennessee legislature resumes session in June 2020 and enacts changes.
Texas	Most organizations are exempt	N/A	N/A
Utah	Based on registration date of applicant	Unchanged	“We are working with organizations who expired April 1, 2020, and cannot file due to the Covid virus, but the Charitable Solicitations Act only requires a copy of the most recently filed IRS form 990. This means that the previous years 990 filing will suffice with any registrations that are past due or coming up.”
Virginia	5/15/2020	Unchanged	“Our renewal date and expiration date is still the same.”
Washington	11 months after charity’s tax year ends	Unchanged	“Our office is taking into consideration the events that are occurring and are handling these as a case by case basis. When possible please proactively communicate regarding which organizations are having troubles submitting their renewals on time. Our office does provide online filing services at: https://ccfs.sos.wa.gov/#/Home to allow organizations to submit their renewals and other submissions with electronic signatures.”
West Virginia	Based on registration date of applicant	Unchanged	For organizations that currently have an extension or request one prior to their expiration date, will automatically get an additional 90 days from their extension date to file.
Wisconsin	7/31/2020 and 12 months after charity’s tax year ends	Unchanged	Wisconsin already gives 12 months for organizations to file their annual financial report. However, organizations that need additional time to file can submit a written request, which are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. There is a second filing due 7/31/2020 for all organizations, which can be done online and cannot be extended.

If you need assistance managing your state charity registrations, contact us. For more updates, subscribe to our email list.

From all of us at Harbor Compliance, stay tuned and stay safe during these challenging times.

Harbor Compliance does not provide tax, financial, or legal advice. Use of our services does not create an attorney-client relationship. Harbor Compliance is not acting as your attorney and does not review information you provide to us for legal accuracy or sufficiency.

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IRS Form 990 Deadline Extended to July 15, 2020

Impact of Federal Extension on State Charitable Registration Deadlines