Our 501(c)(3) charity is registered to solicit charitable contributions in a number of states and is required to file an annual audit in most of them. Unfortunately, our audit will not be done in time for us to provide it when the filings, which are already on extension, are ultimately due. It will probably be received at least a month after the renewals are due. I am afraid that the states won’t let us solicit contributions from their states without the audit. What should we do? —By email.
Many states have the authority to waive an audit under certain circumstances, but they are leery about doing it because of frauds in the past. If you can’t make the deadline for the states that require an audit, you should probably file the information you have and ask for a “temporary waiver” until you can get the audit to them. Give yourself a reasonable margin beyond the date that the auditor says it will be completed and tell the states you will submit it by the outside date.
If you have been registered for years and regularly met their filing requirements, the likelihood of your being a fraud is relatively small, and they may be willing to give you the temporary waiver. It is certainly better than not filing, or filing an incomplete renewal that is likely to bounce without explanation. By the time that many of them get around to answering your request, it may be a moot issue because the audit is complete and submitted. And if they do tell you to stop soliciting in their state, it will be a shorter time between their cease and desist letter and your audit than it would be if you anticipatorily stopped soliciting on the filing date.
For answers to more questions like this, join our Webinar, State Charitable Solicitation Registration: Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask, October 8, 2025.
Add new comment