THE Marianas Alliance of Non-Government Organizations or MANGO wants to assist local nonprofits stay up to date on their Business Gross Revenue tax.
Emma Perez, MANGO’s interim operations director, and staff recently sat down with Variety after Division of Revenue and Taxation enforcement agents visited their office to inquire about the collection of taxes from a member of MANGO.
“I think what we’re seeing is that [Revenue and Taxation] is trying to get their receivables down,” Perez told Variety. “As they do that, they’re going to identify the ones that are good receivables…and they’ll act accordingly. [MANGO] wants to help make sure that the non-profits are [in compliance].”
Franco Santos, MANGO finance manager, said he, Shawn M. Davis, program assistant, and Perez sat with the DRT agents and answered their questions on when and how taxes can be collected from nonprofit organizations.
Davis said even if an organization is a registered nonprofit corporation, taxes are not immediately waived. She said local nonprofits must first register as a 501(c)(3) entity with the Internal Revenue Service.
When 501(c)(3) status is recognized at the federal level, Davis said the next step is to take the document given by the IRS and file it at the Division of Revenue and Taxation “so that you’ll have tax-exempt status at the state level and federal level.”
As it turns out, the MANGO client didn’t have state-level tax exempt status, but MANGO is working on achieving that, Davis said.
“We’re really happy to be here to help this member client navigate through that,” Perez said. “We hope that we can help other nonprofits…so…they’re in compliance with all these different tax rules that most people don’t know about.”
Perez said MANGO can assist with the business aspect of a nonprofit so clients can remain “mission focused.”
MANGO can help nonprofit organizations with board finances, payroll, grant reporting and more, she added.
There is no fee to become a MANGO member.
Interested parties can call (670) 233-6200 for more information or email info@mangocnmi.org/.
