BACKGROUND: Ours is a private Christian School (K3 - 12). The By-laws state that the PTC must have the same accounting period as the School in order to operate under the school's tax-exempt status. To me this means that we are not independent of the School.

After getting the PTO Today start-up and Treasurer's kit, I (Treasurer) signed up for an IRS EIN number in the PTC's name. We need to get the School Board's approval before we can open a separate checking account. We had a problem in the past where our funds were put into the school's general funds (so we lost them). They have better accounting practices now. We have not opened a checking account yet.

At present, our funds are kept under a separate accounting line in the school's books. We also keep several hundred dollars in petty cash (cashbox) to avoid having to wait to have a check cut for "minor" purchases.

We are fairly new, so our budget is about $10,000. We have not experience any conflicts with the school on how we spend our funds. When we need a check cut for major purchases, they are prompt to provide them.

QUESTIONs:
1. Should I have applied for an EIN?
2. Is there a problem (IRS) with having $2,000 in our own checking account while also having $8k or more in the school's account.
3. Can the PTC properly utilize the school's tax exempt status while maintaining a different EIN?
4. If all of the $10K plus funds are moved into our checking account, will we have to file tax reports each year? I assume that if we keep the balance low (<$5K) we will not have to file.
5. Please address any other issues we should consider given our situation. :confused: