March 2002

E-filing Pilot Project and Free 990 Preparation Software 

To lay the groundwork for electronic filing on a national scale, the National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute (NCCS), in collaboration the National Association of Attorneys General/National Association of State Charity Officials (NAAG/NASCO) and GuideStar, has spearheaded an effort to expedite electronic filing of Forms 990 to the IRS and to state charity offices around the country. Twelve state charity offices have committed to building the infrastructure to allow nonprofit organizations to e-file their annual state registration forms and Forms 990. The participating states are California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington. Find out more about this project at www.form990.org.

NCCS has developed Desktop990^TM, a free software application for preparing Form 990 and state registration forms. It can be used to complete and file IRS Form 990, 990-EZ, Schedules A and B, and any of the 60 or so attachments that may accompany these forms, plus the Unified Registration Statement and any additional information required for state registration. An intermediary server handles authentication, state registration payments, and the overall e-filing process and transfers the data to the state charity offices. To download Desktop990^TM, click here.