Instructions for Form 1023 Part II – Organizational structure

In the part II of the form 1023, the IRS tries to identify you as an eligible organization. The name organization doesn’t mean jack in the eyes of the IRS. A group of cats in the alley meowing can be called organization, so stay away from this term. I know many of you think that calling your entity organization makes it cooler than a corporation, but in reality they all mean the same. Call it what it IS.

So whatever you call your group doesn’t matter, you MUST be a corporation (including a limited liability company), an unincorporated association, or a trust to be able to file the form 1023 and  be tax exempt.

DO NOT file this form unless you can check “Yes” on lines 1, 2, 3, or 4.

On section 5 of this article, you have to answer YES. You need to adopt bylaws to show how you run your entity. IRS might accept a written explanation, but this explanation is your bylaws (well sort of). If you don’t adopt bylaws, you can be almost sure that you will never receive a favorable answer on your application. So do it right the first time. See here on how to write your bylaws.