HISTORY/TIMELINE

RID is no longer a non profit organization. This decision doesn’t change what RID is known for; advocating for road safety laws, doing TV interviews with the media, giving voice and support to victims of drunken drivers, publishing our newsletter every six months and posting on our social media blogs.

While our tax status has changed, the mission has not.

April 2020: RID cancels Spring Newsletter due to Covid19

October 2020: RID cancels Fall Newsletter due to Covid19

December 2020: Our donations fell by 70% since the beginning of Covid19

January 2021: Jane and I meet with our accounting firm and determined that the cost of using an accounting firm can’t be offset our reduced income after Covid19.

March 2022; The IRS notifies RID that our status as a non profit has been suspended. The IRS gave RID a period of 18 months to file the necessary paperwork to restore our non profit status.

October 2022: After spending months in search of a CPA I finally found someone who agreed to assess our tax situation. RID hired this specialist, who handles non profits. I sent her all of RID’s tax records dating back to 2012.

June 2023: The CPA specialist audited our tax records and gave her assessment of what it would take to restore our non profit status. RID paid her nearly a thousand dollars for her work. If we restored our non profit status, we would have to hire a CPA to file RID’s quarterly reports to the IRS.

July 2023: Jane and I determined it made more sense going forward to end our non profit status, in addition to the restoration fees, the accounting expense made maintaining our non profit status prohibitive. Our donations significantly declined during Covid19. So going forward, RID will continue our operation as an educational charity. Since our non profit status was suspended, I replied to recent donors on an individual basis that donations to RID are no longer deductible on their tax returns.

September 2023: Jane and I decided to use the services of the CPA specialist to set up RID as a charity.