March 6, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
The number of charities that filed Form 990 and Form 990-EZ informational tax returns with the government rose from 207,272 in 1998 to 211,615 in 1999, an increase of 2.1 percent, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
That figure was lower than the 4.2-percent increase from 1997 to 1998 and the 3.6-percent rise from 1996 to 1997.
The IRS noted that, under the law, most of the 637,351 charities the government considered to be active in 1999 did not have to file returns. Those include churches and certain other religious organizations, as well as nonprofit groups with annual gross receipts totaling less than $25,000. The new statistics also do not count private foundations, which file Form 990-PF returns.
Total revenue reported to the IRSby charities was $800.7-billion in 1999, an increase of 6.5 percent from the $752-billion reported in the previous year. Total assets of charities were $1.45-trillion in 1999, 7.6 percent more than the $1.35-trillion reported in 1998.
Total liabilities of charities were $481.4-billion in 1999, an increase of 4.8 percent from the $459.2-billion reported in 1998.
The government data appeared in the Internal Revenue Service’s fall 2002 Statistics of Income Bulletin.
