January 6, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
Charities now can file their federal informational tax returns over the Internet using free software offered by a Washington nonprofit group.
The group, the Urban Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics, has developed a program that allows charities to enter, verify, print, and electronically file their Forms 990 or Forms 990-EZ.
The Internal Revenue Service last year made electronic filing available to charities through commercial software providers that charge fees that can exceed $1,000 (The Chronicle, March 4).
The center is the first provider to offer the software free.
More than 1,000 people have used the electronic-filing software so far, said Linda Lampkin, the center’s program director.
The software program has tips for filling out the form, does the addition and subtraction of figures included on the forms, and catches common errors, such as failure to attach required schedules. Nonprofit officials must fill out the form online, but they can download copies of the completed forms to their hard drives.
“Our overriding goal is higher-quality data that’s more easily accessible, and this is a step that will help,” Ms. Lampkin said.
In coming months, she added, charities also will be able to use the center’s software to file informational returns with certain states over the Internet.
The software is available at http://efile.form990.org.
