ktso--I would just worry about the stuff under your new EIN. As you stated, the IRS didn't even know you existed under your old one. Once you got the new EIN, it was like starting fresh.

ktso--I found our original letter from the IRS confirming our EIN #. I was then able to reactiviate our old number. If you have any letters from the IRS on file, you can still use your old number.
suggest speaking to the finance person with your board of ed in regard to your other question.

I am going through this same thing right now. I applied for several grants and discovered that the number was invalid; spoke with the IRS and they had no record of us. Now we have a new EIN and are filing Form 1023 for exempt status. My question is what about the past years' receipts...will we be taxed on that? Will we then have to go through another process to get this taken care of?

DonnaS - My school just went through this. For years we had our Fed EIN, but never filed the 990. Until just recently when I went to file for a grant, I didn't know we weren't Federally Tax Exempt. So when I began that process, I found that our Fed TAX ID was inactive. YIKES! Reason is we didn't file the 990. According to the IRS, if you don't file the 990, they have no reason to believe that your organization (or business) is still in existance. They then consider it inactive and you shouldn't be using it. We had to reactivate it and then begin the filing of the Tax Exempt Status. I STRONGLY recommend that you file the 990 no matter what your income to keep your EIN active. You can have state tax exempt status, but not federal if you are only dealing with businesses instate. However, to apply for a grant, such as Lowe's toolbox4education, you need the Federal status.

Thank You. Very good information. I called the IRS this morning and spoke with 2 terrific people. Here is some information others might find helpful.

If you have earned $5000 or less (gross income).. you do not need to file.

If you have not applied for Tax Exempt Status and are earning above $5000.00 a year, you should be filing a form 1120 and paying taxes on that income.

To file for Tax Exempt status (form 1023), it will cost you $750 if you are going to earn more than $10,000 (gross) in 4 consecutive years. If you will earn less, the filing fee is $300.

Now..I will be researching on how to file for the non profit status next!

If you have not at least filed for your Federal tax exemption, it will raise red flags if you start filing tax returns for tax exempt organizations (990, 990-EZ, 990-N). It used to be that tax-exempt organizations only had to file the 990 or 990-EZ if they grossed $25,000 or more; beginning in 2008 the IRS is requiring that even organizations making less than that will be required to file an electronic information return (the 990-N). The IRS website has some pretty good information on it; you could start here: www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/index.html

When you have an EIN, it doesn't mean you're exempt or not exempt or really much of anything. Technically if you haven't filed for exemption, you should be paying corporate income taxes. I don't know of any parent groups that actually do that, but that's the "right" answer.