How To Register A Non-profit Organisation In Florida

To start a nonprofit corporation in Florida, begin by filing nonprofit Articles of Incorporation with the Florida Department of State's Sectionalisation of Corporations. Yous can file your manufactures online or by mail. The manufactures of incorporation cost $70 full to file. Just truly preparing a nonprofit to pursue its mission involves several additional steps.

Hire Northwest to beginning your Florida nonprofit, and you lot can benefit from the gratuitous employ of our Florida business accost and express gratuitous mail service forwarding. Additionally, all of our services come up with Privacy by Default® and the ongoing assistance of our local Corporate Guides®.

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Download the Florida nonprofit Articles of Incorporation. Fill out the class and submit to the state.

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To contain a Florida nonprofit, you must consummate and file nonprofit manufactures of incorporation with the Florida Sectionalization of Corporations. See the document below and click on any number to run across what information is required in the corresponding section.

1. Corporate Name

Your nonprofit's proper noun must incorporate a corporate suffix ("Corporation," "Corp.," "Incorporated," or "Inc."), and the name must be distinguishable from other organizations on file with the Land of Florida. Florida's Partition of Corporations no longer provides name reservations and preliminary name searches, but you can search the country'south records yourself at the Sectionalisation's website.

2. Principal Office

Include the street address and mailing address (if different) of your nonprofit's principal place of business, and keep in mind that any street address you lot put down goes onto the public tape. When you sign up for Northwest's registered amanuensis service, y'all can list the Tampa, FL, street accost of our function in place of yours.

3. Purpose

Florida wants a detailed description of your nonprofit's purpose (and gives y'all enough of room on the form to write it). If your nonprofit intends to seek 501(c)(3) federal tax-exempt condition, be sure to include the specific tax-exempt linguistic communication required by the IRS.

4. Manner of Election

Briefly signal how your nonprofit will elect and engage its directors.

5. Initial Officers and/or Directors

You lot have the pick to listing the names, addresses, and titles of your nonprofit's directors or officers (at least three).

6. Registered Amanuensis

Include the name and Florida street address of your nonprofit's registered agent. Your registered amanuensis is the private or concern (similar Northwest!) authorized to have services of process (legal notices) on your nonprofit'south behalf. Florida requires an organization's registered agent to officially have the position by signing and dating the manufactures of incorporation.

7. Incorporator

Include the name and address of at least one incorporator. An incorporator is simply a person authorized to complete, sign, and submit your nonprofit'south articles of incorporation. Hire Northwest to form your nonprofit, and we'll exist your incorporator.

8. Effective Engagement (Optional)

Your organization's constructive date is simply the date of its official creation, which is usually just the engagement the Division of Corporations processes the articles of incorporation. However, Florida gives nonprofits the selection to push the effective date dorsum five days prior to the actual filing date or 90 days after—you lot just demand to betoken the constructive date on your manufactures of incorporation. Well-nigh nonprofits leave this section blank.

How Much Does It Cost to Contain a Florida Nonprofit?

Florida charges a $70 in combined fees to file nonprofit articles of incorporation, a full that includes a $35 filing fee and a $35 designation of registered agent fee. Hire Northwest to class your nonprofit, and your total cost, which includes a full twelvemonth of registered agent service, is $295.

How Long Does It Take to Start a Florida Nonprofit?

If you file online, Florida will procedure your articles within nigh five business days (mailed filings, of course, may take a chip longer). When you hire Northwest to class your Florida nonprofit, we'll file your manufactures online, and you lot can await a response from the state within five business days.

Does a Florida Nonprofit Need a Registered Agent?

Yes, Florida requires a nonprofit corporation to engage and maintain a registered agent to receive service of process (legal notices) from the state, which is why your nonprofit's articles of incorporation must list your registered amanuensis's Florida street accost.

You're allowed to listing yourself as the registered amanuensis, but we think it'south wiser to go with a registered agent service similar Northwest. Why? Because almost people can't manage and grow a new nonprofit if they can't leave the office during normal business hours, and "staying put" is exactly what the state expects of a registered agent. You would also accept to bargain with the fallout of listing your residential or office address on your manufactures of incorporation, a publicly available document. That fallout ordinarily includes excessive junk mail, solicitors showing upwards at your door, and extra fees paid to the land if you ever need to change the location of your nonprofit'due south registered office.

These bug disappear when you hire Northwest, where we do the waiting instead of you lot, where you lot become to listing our Tampa office address on your nonprofit's articles of incorporation (in place of your own), and where you go the comfort of knowing that a professional person registered agent service is always there to receive legal notices and official state mail on your behalf. At Northwest, we have the infrastructure in place to scan and send any official state documents we receive on the day we receive them.

A federal employer identification number (a FEIN or EIN) is a must for whatsoever new nonprofit trying to navigate its finances, solicit donations, or employ for federal and state tax exemptions. Your Florida nonprofit can get an EIN from the IRS as soon as the country approves your Articles of Incorporation. Utilize through the IRS website, or you can save yourself the trouble entirely by calculation our EIN service for an boosted fee when y'all hire Northwest.

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Starting a successful nonprofit means getting everyone in the organization on the same folio, and bylaws are what brand that possible. Will your nonprofit have voting members? How long is a managing director'south tenure? What are the officers' responsibilities? What if your nonprofit needs to suspend a managing director? Questions like these become addressed in your bylaws, and without them your nonprofit's directors and officers can't really guide the organisation at all. Nearly nonprofits adopt their bylaws at the organizational meeting (the starting time coming together of the directors later on incorporating) and before seeking 501(c)(iii) tax-exempt status from the IRS.

It's tough to write bylaws, merely Northwest can help. When you lot hire u.s.a., you'll go admission to our template for writing nonprofit bylaws, besides every bit numerous other complimentary nonprofit forms to help your nonprofit start successful and stay successful. Why? Because we want yous to sign up for our registered agent service twelvemonth after yr, and that requires that your nonprofit stays in business and continues to grow. Your success is our success.

Your nonprofit will pay federal income taxes, like any business, unless it obtains federal tax-exempt status from the IRS. This involves submitting an Awarding for Recognition of Exemption to the IRS to demonstrate that your organization qualifies every bit one of around ii dozen different types of exempt organizations described under section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code. Since most nonprofits get formed for charitable purposes, the majority of new nonprofits seek 501(c)(3) status for public charities and private foundations.

If your nonprofit intends to seek 501(c)(three) tax-exempt status, make sure your articles of incorporation include the special taxation-exempt language required by the IRS. This language, which includes a argument of purpose and a provision governing what happens to your nonprofit'southward assets if it ever shuts downwardly, is designed to brand certain your nonprofit is defended exclusively to the pursuit of one or more revenue enhancement-exempt purposes recognized by the IRS.

Things get more complicate at the state level. In full general, your nonprofit will pay the Florida reemployment tax if it consistently has more than four employees, but 501(c)(iii) charitable organizations, if already recognized by the IRS, are usually exempt from the land's corporate income tax. It is likewise possible to get a sales and use tax exemption (at least on purchases) if the nonprofit obtains a Consumer's Certificate of Exemption.

Does a Florida Nonprofit Demand a Business License?

Florida's equivalent of a business concern license is called the Business Tax Receipt, which typically gets granted past the canton government, and about counties require businesses, including nonprofits, to get a business tax receipt. This is one of the more complicated elements of starting a nonprofit (or whatever business concern) in Florida, so it's probably best to simply reach out to your local taxation collector's office to become articulate nigh the requirements and fees specific to your nonprofit.

Should a Florida Nonprofit Register for Land Tax Accounts?

If your nonprofit will have paid employees or make sales of any kind (among numerous other kinds of business organisation-like transactions), you lot will probable need to submit a Business Tax Application (Form DR-i) to the Florida Section of Revenue. Annals online at the Florida Department of Revenue's website.

Should a Florida Nonprofit Register as a Charity?

If your Florida nonprofit intends to solicit charitable contributions from the public, yous're required to register as a charity with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and renew each yr. However, the awarding process and costs differ depending on your nonprofit's annual revenue. Check out our guide to Florida Charity Registration for details.

To open a bank business relationship for your Florida nonprofit, yous will need to bring the post-obit items with you lot to the banking concern:

A copy of your nonprofit'south articles of incorporation
A copy of your nonprofit's bylaws
Your nonprofit's EIN

It's wise to call your ahead of time to check its requirements. Some banks may require you to bring a resolution authorizing you to open a banking concern account in your nonprofit's name (particularly if your nonprofit has several directors and/or officers).

Florida requires nonprofits to file annual reports to keep the Department of State'due south records current, including data about your nonprofit's registered amanuensis and the names and addresses of your officers and directors. The filing fee is $61.25, and you must file online at the Florida Department of State'due south website. The deadline is May 1st each year.

Hire Northwest as your registered agent service, and nosotros'll send you a reminder when your annual report'due south deadline approaches, merely nosotros tin also complete and submit the report ourselves. But add our convenient Florida annual study service, for an additional $161.25 fee, when you rent Northwest.

Let Us Be Your Guide

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At Northwest Registered Agent, we've spent years crafting our Florida Nonprofit Service. When y'all hire us, nosotros'll form your Florida nonprofit for $295 total and include:

Privacy by Default®
One year of registered agent service
Complimentary Florida business organization address use
Free mail forwarding (up to 10 pieces of non-state mail scanned per twelvemonth for FREE)
Digital notifications
Florida almanac written report reminders and directions for fast filing
A secure online business relationship filled with intuitive business maintenance tools and forms to make upkeep simple
Lifetime Corporate Guide Service—call us anytime and ane of our Corporate Guides® will assistance you navigate whatsoever business trouble, task or marvel you have.

Northwest Registered Agent is the only national nonprofit formation service dedicated to your personal privacy. We don't well information to third-parties, and we do everything we can to keep your personal information secure.

START YOUR FLORIDA NONPROFIT FOR $295 Full