Fiscal vs. Tax Years
When Mission Increase Foundation requests annual ministry data, it's important for the person responsible for submitting that data to understand the difference between Fiscal Year and Tax Year.

For a majority of non-profits whose fiscal year runs from January 1 to December 31, there is no difference. The Fiscal Year and the Tax Year represent the same 12 month period.

However, consider Organization "Y" whose fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. When Organization "Y" completed its 2010 fiscal year on June 30, 2010, it began to prepare Form 990 for Tax Year 2009.

Most managers and accountants think in terms of organization fiscal years. The IRS, in contrast, focuses on the Start/Tax Year in both naming the IRS files and in determining what version of the Form 990 to use. Thus, Organization "Y" with its fiscal year beginning in 2009 and ending in 2010 would use the IRS form with "2009" in the upper right corner, since this reflects its Start/Tax Year.

For example: