[SADXA] Club stuff

[Douglas Todd]

Some news about the club incorporation:

Bernie's estate has signed a release for the club's name, and has provided a death certificate. This clears a major hurdle for the clubs incorporation. We owe Gail a round of applause on this. He really did move mountains.

Keith and I have discussed the club's incorporation; given that we have the documents that release the name, we can register the name with the necessary paperwork to incorporate the club. Keith is willing to do this at his cost, which should be around $75- $100. We would be registered as a 501C4, which means that the club is not taxed, but dues and payments to the club are not tax deductible. 

Here's a list of specifics from  correspondence with  Keith  about our tax  and incorporation status.

>From Keith:

1.  File Articles of Incorporation with the Arizona Corporation Commission to form a legal Arizona non-profit corporation.   We'll need to include the name release with that.  if we incorporate, there probably is no real need to register the trade name with the Secretary of State because the incorporation process basically reserves the name legally anyway (although it can be done).
2.  When the Articles come backed stamped with their approval , obtain the EIN and take a copy of the Articles and the EIN to the bank to open the account.  This process can take only a week to 10 days if we apply expedited, otherwise expect it to be at least 3-4 weeks.  This costs money - we could pay it out of the existing account.

3.  The Articles must be published in a Pima County newspaper for at least 3 consecutive issues, I normally use the Ajo Copper News which is a weekly but seems to be the cheapest.

4.  To file a 501(c)(3) application, the club needs to be charitable, I seriously doubt it would qualify.  Instead, it's likely that it should be a 501(c)(4) or other organization, which allows it to be non-profit with the IRS but not charitable - in other words, the club can not solicit tax-deductible contributions.  Probably means filing a Form 1024 Application for Recognition of Exemption with the IRS (which carries a user fee).  We may also be able to bypass this process and just file as a non-profit anyway, given the likelihood that our income will never be very high.

5.  Assuming we remain at normal income levels, we can just file a "990-N" electronic postcard which is a very simple annual online filing.

6.  There is also an annual filing with the AZ Corp Commission.



Doug (KE7GYQ)