Montana non-profits were under pressure to send in paperwork to the state Department of Revenue before March 1 to keep their tax exempt status. By mid-February, only about 1,000 of the estimated 6,000 Montana non-profits had actually finished the paperwork and sent it in. According to Montana Department of Revenue (DOR) spokeswoman Molly Peterson, there were a lot of last minute entries.

We have been processing applications for several weeks, and, with the deadline being passed now, we have eight bins of unopened applications that we are diligently working through to get processed," said DOR spokeswoman Molly Peterson.

Although there have been warnings of tax-exempt status being revoked for those non-profits that didn’t send in the paperwork, Peterson says there is still a little bit of time to get those papers filed.

"In the long run, what will happen is that they will not have their tax exempt status anymore and so they will be charged property taxes by their county," Peterson said. "If you have not sent your application in, if you missed the March 1 deadline, please go ahead and send it in and we will get it processed. There is still time. There is not an official grace period, but we will still process your application if you get it in as soon as you can."

The Department of Revenue has not been clear on when exactly the unofficial grace period will end, but it appears they plan to make that decision when they finish processing the paperwork that has already been sent.

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