Illinois charity registration recovery

Search the Illinois charity portal by legal name, FEIN, or registration number and save the exact result, fiscal year end, latest accepted report, open invoices, and correspondence. The current portal guide recognizes current, delinquent, and expired statuses. Those labels matter: an annual-report option may be available for a current record, while the guide says an organization not in good standing is told to re-register.

Build a period-by-period table of every AG990-IL, federal return, financial statement, fundraising relationship, extension, fee, and status. Keep the Attorney General record separate from the Secretary of State corporation record and IRS status. A filed corporate annual report or federal return does not restore the charity registration, and a charity re-registration does not repair a corporation or tax problem.

The Illinois public portal guide defines re-registration as the full CO-1 filing process for an organization that failed to maintain good standing. Its checklist specifically covers a cancelled or expired charitable organization. The CO-1 is the parent filing, and the intake may generate a CO-2 or one to three AG990-IL child forms based on the entity’s age and fiscal history. If AG990-IL forms are required, the guide says the system starts with the most recent period and works backward for up to two more.

Do not try to bypass the status logic by starting a stand-alone annual report. The guide says an AG990-IL attempt for an organization not in good standing prompts re-registration, and the filing logic rejects an annual report when the organization is cancelled and has not re-registered. Answer the intake from approved records so it produces the correct package.

The portal checklist identifies the CO-1, the system-selected CO-2 or AG990-IL forms, a CO-3 when a religious exemption is claimed, and an IFC for each applicable professional-fundraiser relationship. Listed attachments include articles, bylaws and amendments, the IRS determination letter, officers and directors, fundraising contracts when applicable, financial statements or a treasurer’s report, and a purpose or mission statement.

Each generated form must validate with its own attachments before the package can move to signature and payment. The CO-1 generally requires two officers, directors, or trustees to attest, except the guide’s single-trustee case. AG990-IL forms also require the applicable signers and most recent federal return, any required reviewed or audited financial statements, and fundraiser documentation. Resolve fiscal-period and officer mismatches before sending electronic signature links.

An AG990-IL is due within six months after fiscal year end. The Attorney General’s published instructions say a proper complete annual report, all required attachments, and applicable fees must arrive by the due date unless a timely extension applies. A late report requires a $100 late-report filing fee and is not accepted as filed if the fee is missing. For a soliciting organization, the ordinary $15 annual report fee applies when gross contributions exceed $15,000 or assets exceed $25,000 under the form’s instructions.

The online portal calculates filing fees, annual-report fees, late fees, and re-registration fees based on the record and intake. Do not hard-code an assumed total from the public status alone. If the filer elects to mail payment, the portal guide requires the invoice and payment to reach the Bureau within 15 calendar days; otherwise the filing remains incomplete and the process may need to restart.

The portal sends each designated signer an electronic attestation link. Confirm that all forms and attachments are final before those attestations occur, then preserve signature confirmations, the full submitted package, the invoice, payment receipt, portal messages, and any deficiency response. An unfinished child form, unsigned attestation, or unpaid invoice can prevent the parent re-registration from becoming complete.

After the Bureau accepts the package, recheck the official portal for the legal name, registration number, status, and report history. Do not call the organization restored merely because CO-1 was started or fees were calculated. Calendar the next AG990-IL due date and extension checkpoints, and assign fundraiser-contract collection before year end so required IFC forms do not become the next bottleneck.