The PTO Today Start-Up guide is very helpful, especially as far as the actual application goes.

I'd say it took at least 10 hours off the time I had to put into it.

For timing -- mine was mailed in December and Approved in January. They approved me retroactive to our Date of Incorporation, even though I had to write an amendment 5 months later to meet IRS requirements.

Thanks for all the responses. Our treasurer has decided to look a the IRS application and see if she thinks she can fill it out. We've decided we should apply for non-profit status. Not having to pay federal taxes and being able to get donations made the difference for us I think. I'm going to email the link to this page to our treasurer so if she decides to fill out the form she knows where to go for answers!!! Again many thankis for all the advice.

Dragonlady,
It is not clear to me if you have figured this out, but, if you do file as a 501(C)3 you can file as new organization, beginning with your date of incorporation. That eliminates the problem with all those messy old records.

I think dragonlady was responding to a question about the order (IRS vs. State of MASS) to make the applications.

njmom is correct that if you only apply as a Public Charity in MA, you are not an official Non Profit so you would still owe Fed taxes on proceeds. I am not sure if you would need to pay state income taxes if you are a Public Charity but not 501c3. If you decide to NOT go 501c3, you could ask the question then.

dragonlady,

That is the correct process - Contact the Atty Gen to get a AG# then use that with the Dept of Revenue. They have a web site to register (it takes a couple of days to get registered) and a couple of weeks before the paperwork comes to you.

Did I mention that after we went through the process, we put together a slideshow detailing our experience. It was presented to the othe PTOs in town (a couple of which got theor own 501c3). You might find it helpful. It is at

www.macarthurschool.com/pto.htm

and click on the "Guide to getting Non-Profit/Tax-Exempt for a PTO" link on the right hadn side of the page.

According to their office we don't need 501c3 to be considered a charity and have fundraisers.

That may be true for the state but I think that the IRS would still require that you get nonprofit status to be considered a non-taxable charity. You'll definitely want to check into that.

The 3 officers are meeting tonight to go over many things. I'll pull this discussion up to go over it. It seems like its worth it to file as 501c3, especially if we'll have to be paying taxes. Would we be filing taxes on our net or gross? I called the Sec. of State office to find out what we needed to do to solicit funds. They told me to first file with A. G. office as a corporation and then to file with their office. We can solicit funds without having filed for 501c3 status. According to their office we don't need 501c3 to be considered a charity and have fundraisers. If we decide to fill out the form ourselves I will definitely be coming back to this board for help!!! I thought I had to go back thru 4 years worth of records and the records are a MESS. I was not looking forward to that. I'll keep you posted and thanks for all the advice!!!