It's finally offical

[Brent Drake]

The PRA is now a 501-C-3 corp.

We can now have raffles

We can now take donations and give people a tax exemption.

 

[Texasautogyro]

That's great to hear! The PRA needs progress like that!

 

[Stan V]

That's great Brent, now if we could only find an employee to man the office!

 

[All_In]

That's great Brent, now if we could only find an employee to man the office!

Bro!
What are you trying to get me fired?
Tom Milton just posted in our last BOD meeting in our private forum that they should double my salary as I was doing such a good job.
Which made me very happy. However 2 x $0.00 is still $0.00. Hahahahaha

Seriously though we are only waiting to hire a new employee after I apply for our Indiana gambling/raffle license and have the first raffle then we suspect we will have the revenue to spend on a new employee right now we are saving our biggest expense with is making us profitable.

 

[PW_Plack]

Guys, did this require any changes to the PRA charter? 501(c)(3) is for educational or charitable organizations, and in the past has been specifically unavailable to fraternal organizations and clubs created for members' mutual benefit.

 

[All_In]

Not that we know of Paul. However we had an attorney fill out the form and I'm waiting to get a copy so will only know for certain after I receive the actual form all we have now is the IRS letter approving us as a 501(c)3 with effective starting date of 10/5/2015 and approved on 2/4/2016.

 

[Stan V]

Bro!
What are you trying to get me fired?
Tom Milton just posted in our last BOD meeting in our private forum that they should double my salary as I was doing such a good job.
Which made me very happy. However 2 x $0.00 is still $0.00. Hahahahaha

Seriously though we are only waiting to hire a new employee after I apply for our Indiana gambling/raffle license and have the first raffle then we suspect we will have the revenue to spend on a new employee right now we are saving our biggest expense with is making us profitable.

You are under paid john, no doubt about it! I see the need to have someone at the airport every day. They should be there to take calls , manage the airport/camp grounds, and mow the grass too?

 

[All_In]

Hi Stan
You are correct Bro I cannot market the campsite either until we do have an employee that will at least drive by like a park ranger a minimum of twice a day.

However PRA only started growing membership since we brought the hard-copy of the magazine back in 7/15 so the BOD feels we need a buffer in our bank account more than an employee to monitor campers so I'm it for now.

We are growing the bank account instead of hiring anyone for pay until after our convention then we can hire a new employee.

However there is a faster solution and Brent is contacting all the members that wished to donate cash but wanted a tax deduction as of yesterday and there is a good chance we will have the funds to hire someone, if we can find a local there, before that.

The other new source of revenue is raffles however it will take 45 days for IN gambling commission to approve each new application to have raffles so donations are our best hope to hire an employee before that.

 

[All_In]

Guys, did this require any changes to the PRA charter? 501(c)(3) is for educational or charitable organizations, and in the past has been specifically unavailable to fraternal organizations and clubs created for members' mutual benefit.

I discovered what I expected but did not know for sure Bro.
We are an educational and charitable organization. So we did not have to change the charter at all. We always have helped educate the public in building, training, and safety, and because Tim O'Connor has been offering his excellent ground school as a PRA education class and pays part of the revenue back to PRA we easily qualify as an educational charity under the existing charter and always have.

It was easy only had to list the correct things that makes us educational under the existing charter. However we filed for this way back in September of 2015 and been waiting for the government all this time.

 

[Doug Riley]

Interesting. National groups to which I contribute, and which lobby/litigate on issues of interest to their members, tend to run two sister entities: one is an educational foundation, contributions to which are tax-deductible; the other is the lobbying/litigation arm, contributions to which are NOT tax-deductible.

I don't know enough about the IRS regs in this area to know if they allow a "percentage" of self-serving activity without blowing the 501(c)(3) status, or whether there must be a strict quarantine. PRA has, in the past, worked with the FAA on regulatory changes (either actually or ostensibly for its members' benefit), sometimes successfully, other times not.

It'd be worth asking the lawyer who did the application.

 

[Brent Drake]

Doug, I'm sure sure of your question. Can you be a little more detailed please?

 

[Doug Riley]

Brent: The Tax Code says that a 501(c)(3) charity is "disqualified" (i.e donations to it aren't deductible) if the charity attempts to influence legislation or elections.

I've never seen the PRA take a position for or against a political candidate. Going all the way back to Bensen, though, we have periodically tried to influence the FAA regs that matter to us. Is that a problem, either because of past history or going forward?

 

[Steve_UK]

Does the EAA have 501(c)(3) charity status or are they out there lobbying for experimental aviation

 

[Jazzenjohn]

I'm not sure that helping craft safety regulations is anywhere close to the same thing as trying to influence legislation, but I defer to anyone who knows better.

 

[Doug Riley]

During the years I was an EAA member, they were indeed out there lobbying, and donations to the EAA were not tax-deductible. They had a sister foundation, donations to which were deductible, per the structure I described earlier.

Note: This is U.S. income-tax stuff, probably irrelevant outside the States. Tax codes are quirky because of... well... lobbying.

 

[Brent Drake]

Doug, we are a C3 corporation. WE can take donations and give the donor a tax deduction.
WE did nothing about lobbying of any kind.
WE have top attorney and a CPA guiding us.

 

[All_In]

Once approved as long a we do not break any rules in 50 years I've never seen the IRS cancel a 501(c)3 unless it was for inactivity.