I'll try to keep this short and sweet even though it has been a very long and painful ordeal for our PTO! I've put some background information at the bottom of this post.

We are a small PTO at a small school. Our average gross income is about $20,000 - $25,000. Our bank account is set up as a non profit account under an EIN number that according to the IRS is no longer active. The IRS suggested that we try to get our old number reinstated, file for 501c3 status,
and then file 990's for the past 3 years. If we obtain 501c3 status, then we wouldn't be responsible for back taxes, but we could be subject to a $20 a day late filing fee.

We are in a small town and some people are upset (including 4 board members who have resigned) because they don't want to deal with all of this. They just want things to be run the way they always have been.

At this point, we are considering dissolving. However, I want to make sure that the correct paperwork (taxes) get filed for this year. Since we are not officially a 501c3, does anyone know what needs to be filed? As a board member who feels that we have been operating illegally, I want to make sure that I am not held legally responsible.

Background Information:

This is my first year on the board of our PTO. At the beginning of the year, we found out that our treasure had been embezzeling money. She was able to write checks out to herself for cash -- one for $400, one for $600, one for a $1,000 etc.. Come to find out, the reason she was able to get away with this was because she was getting the ohther 2 signers on the account (past president and school secretary) to sign several blank checks at a time. She was working out of 2 different checkbooks and nobody ever bothered to check the bank statements against her typed up monthly reports she was presenting to us. She resigned and paid the money back.