By the virtue of your not doing any activity with the old EIN, the group is effectively disbanded. But it's probably a good idea to do it formally. At a meeting of the "old" group, vote to donate all your assets to the new group, then vote to disband the old group. Record the details in your meeting minutes, the last ones for the old group. That's good practice, but really just for your own internal documentation (no one's going to come checking up on you). In time, the IRS will deactivate the old EIN, but you don't have to do anything special for that to happen.
HOWEVER, if your old group had been a federally-registered 501c3, you can't just stop filing the annual 990/990EZ paperwork. I'm not exactly sure how this would work if you truly disbanded a 501c3, but at least you'd have to file one year's worth of 990/990EZ that showed your financial activity dropping to basically zero. If you don't file the 990/990EZ, you can be assessed some really hefty fines by the IRS, even if you have no activity for part of a year.
EIN is "employer id number" which is also called the tax id number. Go to
Internal Revenue Service
and search for Form SS-4. That form will give you the instructions you need to get your new EIN (no cost). Then open a new bank account using the new EIN and move the $ from the old account to the new.
I think you can go either way, but many of us have gone the 'clean sweep' route. Many of us were affiliated with PTO's in existence for some time. But if they were operated informally, there many have been no good records from previous years. Rather than relying on bad/missing information it's sometimes easier to just form a new organization.
Request a new EIN from the IRS. Write or adapt bylaws with an effective date for when you want the organization "born". If you are incorporating (which is an ideal step and needs to be completed before your 501(c)(3) you will be starting a new legal entity anyway. So take care of that step - unless it's unusally expensive/cumbersome in your state. Then file your 501(c)(3) application as a new organization.
I took over for out PTO 2 years ago. The previous pres, cleared out our bank account, among other things, so we disbanded, and re formed 2 years ago. We found out our PTO didn't have tax exempt status. We have started trying to fill out the application, but we will not have much of the information needed, due to our books being gone. When we reformed we were givin the old tax ID number, so we need that information.
My question is, would it be easier to disband, and reform under our own number? If so how do we do this? If not what do we do to fill out this application?
Please help, any information will help. We are at a loss, and do not know what to do.
Thanks
