Beginning with tax year 2006, organizations that had $10 million or more in assets at the end of the tax year that also filed more than 250 forms with the IRS were required to file Form 990 electronically. Forms filed with the IRS include, but are not limited to, Forms W-2, W-3, 941, 940, 945, and any variation of Form 1099. Organizations that were required to file electronically but failed to do so would be deemed by the IRS to have not filed the return at all.
Considering the penalty for failure to file timely is $100 per day for organizations having gross receipts of $1 million or more (with a maximum penalty of $50,000) not filing electronically when required to do so could result in a significant penalty to the organization. Prior to the introduction of the 2008 Form 990 Draft, you would have had to read the instructions to the Form 990 to be aware of this electronic filing requirement. Thankfully, for those who chose to take on life's challenges without reading the directions, the 2008 Form 990 spells out the possible electronic filing requirement in the body of the return; specifically, in Part V question 2b on page 5.
Happy e-filing!
Fred
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