Effective September 1, 2023, Massachusetts Division of Charities no longer accepts a paper copy of Form PC. They have a new electronic filing system on their website called the Charity Portal. This system does not interface with any professional tax preparation software and the entire Form PC will have to be manually entered by a third-party (our firm), or by an authorized individual of the organization (an officer, board member or employee).
While the Massachusetts Division of Charities goal of this new system is to streamline the processing of the annual Form PC, it will only streamline it from their perspective. In fact, it will take more time for the organization and their accounting firms to prepare and submit the information to them.
We work with many small nonprofit organizations and provided our services at a discount to give back to our community. Given the significant additional time to work through this new requirement, we wanted to provide you with two options of how to proceed.
Nonprofits with years ending December 31, 2022, automatically received filing extensions for Federal and Massachusetts until February 15, 2024 as a result of a Federal disaster last Fall.
The Federal (990, 990EZ, or 990PF) filings will continue to be prepared and e-filed like normal, there are no changes to that process.
Massachusetts Form PC Filing Options (Please Pick A or B):
A) Massachusetts Form PC is prepared on paper, like normal, in a readable format.
a. Our firm submits the Form PC into the Division of Charities Portal, then, 2 members of your organization review and sign the form inside the portal.
b. The additional cost is estimated from 1 to 3 hours, depending on complexity of filing.
c. We recommend this for our more complex clients who file the Form 990 with multiple attachments, such as reviews or audits, for the return.
B) Massachusetts Form PC is prepared on paper, like normal in a readable format.
a. Your organization submits the information into the Division of Charities Portal by using the information provided on the paper Form PC.
b. This would not incur any additional cost unless you require assistance in this process.
c. We recommend this for our smaller, simpler clients who file a Federal Form 990EZ with no unusual attachments to their return.
Please advise which option you would like to proceed with for your tax filings. As both options include us using the same Federal process and will provide you with a paper version of Form PC, we will have those ready for you shortly.
We have also included a reference guide with links to training and information for using the Charity Portal on the next page. Regardless of which option you choose, members of your organization will need to interact with the Charity Portal to complete the process.
New Charity Portal Information and Training Videos
Click here to access the Charity Portal.
Charity Portal instruction manual, click here.
FAQ document, click here.
Here are several short training videos to support your Charity Portal use: