The tax-exempt status that lets your organization exist is exposed, and you may not even know it.
The annual return is late, or filed without attention to what it reveals. Money is coming in from activities that may be taxable. A payment or benefit to an insider may cross a line. Advocacy may be drifting past what your status allows. Or you simply have never checked. This work gets your annual return filed right and on time, and walks you through the specific things that threaten or revoke exempt status, so the one status your whole organization depends on is protected on purpose rather than by luck. It is not tax advice and it is not the preparation of your return; the return is a professional's work, done with your numbers, and this gets you ready for it and helps you read what it says about you. Use this if your return is late or neglected, or if any of the status threats might apply and no one has checked. If your books are not current enough to file from, that is the financial work, and it comes first.
The single most important act for your status is filing the correct annual return, complete and on time, every year, because missing it repeatedly leads to automatic loss of exempt status. Confirm the version of the return your organization is required to file and your exact due date, which depend on your size and fiscal year, with your accountant rather than assuming. Assemble what the return requires, have the accountant prepare it, have the board review it before filing, and file on time, keeping proof.
Your status may already be at risk of automatic revocation or already revoked. That is an active problem, not a routine filing: get a nonprofit accountant now to determine your standing and, if needed, handle reinstatement. Continue building the routine, but the professional starts today. This is a route, not a stop.
Beyond the filing, a handful of specific things can put exempt status at risk, and most leaders have never checked them. Go through them: benefits or payments to insiders, spending that does not serve your mission, and whether your activities still match the exempt purpose you were granted. Flag anything uncertain to review with a professional, and decide how these get checked routinely, especially any insider transaction, which should go through a conflict-of-interest process before it happens.
A board member, an executive, a family member receiving more than the organization should give is a serious exposure, because improper insider benefit can carry penalties and threaten status. Stop and get a nonprofit accountant or an attorney to review it. This is a route, not a stop.
Not all the money a nonprofit earns is tax-free. Income from activities unrelated to your mission can be taxable and, in large amounts, can even threaten status, and many leaders do not realize their earned income counts. List the ways you earn money that are not gifts or grants, and for each ask whether the activity is related to your mission or is really a separate business run regularly. Take anything flagged to your accountant for the judgment call.
Open the Unrelated Business Income Screen →Your status allows some advocacy but limits it and forbids partisan political activity entirely, and it requires you to make certain records public. Understand, in plain terms, that legislative advocacy is allowed within limits and partisan electioneering is not allowed at all, and set a clear internal line for what your organization will and will not do. Where you do serious advocacy, confirm the specific limits with a professional. Then confirm which of your records must be available to the public, and set how you provide them on request.
Open the Lobbying and Public Disclosure Guide →Everything in this guide that involves a judgment call, whether income is taxable, whether an insider benefit crosses a line, whether your activities still fit your exempt purpose, whether your advocacy is within limits, is a professional's determination, and this guide sends it there. Preparing the return is a nonprofit accountant's work. A threatened or revoked status is an accountant's and often an attorney's work. The guide builds your awareness and your routine; it does not replace the professional who makes the call, and it says so at each of these points.
Your annual return is filed on time and your board has seen it. You have screened for the status threats and your taxable income, with anything questionable resolved by a professional. And you have a clear line on advocacy and a routine for public disclosure.
Most leaders move from here to Register and Adopt the Policies You Are Required to Have, or to Get Ready for and Survive an Audit if one is on the horizon. The financial work, produces the numbers your return rests on.