A few of our members have asked me about their donations and tax deductions.  I asked our attorney to clarify this and this is what he had to say.

"Walkers in Darkness will apply for tax-exempt status with the IRS in the near future. Assuming the application for tax exempt status is submitted to IRS before 2/01/2011, as currently planned, donations dating back to 10/22/2009, the date of incorporation of Walkers in Darkness, will be tax deductible if Walkers in Darkness is approved for tax-exempt status by the IRS."

I have always suggested that, because each individual may have factors unique to them as regards their taxes, you consult your accountant, tax preparer or tax attorney for their opinion as to how this affects your own individual return.  For most folks, however, you may go back to 10/22/09 and claim any donations made since that date.

It is costing us a great deal of money to prepare and file all the paperwork necesary to attain our tax exempt, charitable organization status.  We do not have special funds for this, so we have to pay out of our regular operating funds to do this.

It is very important then that we receive as much support for our members as possible, so that we can proceed.  Many things, including legal fees, are being donated but never the government's fees.  The all-important Form 1023 that we must file with IRS will alone cost us over $750.00 just to file.  Many states also require individual filings which can run $50+ each to file.

So, it is really very important that we have your help, not only with our usual operating expenses (which I have been paring down to the bone), but all of these new expenses.

If Walkers helps you in any way and you feel that you benefit from this place being here, please do support it.  Even a $5 donation helps, especially if you make it a monthly donation.

Even signing up for iGive.com and doing your web searches and online shopping through them helps (although not immediately, because of their payment schedule).  Go to http://igive.com/walkers to sign up.  There is no cost to you, yet Walkers will receive $5 the first time you shop and a percentage of every purchase at well-known online merchants.  If you use them for your search engine (they have a customized version of Google), we get a few cents per search and it adds up when a lot of people do it.  They even have a very useful toolbar thatyou can install to insure that we get the proper credits and which allows you to keep track of what you are contributing.

Mongo