Are The Girl Scouts Tax Exempt?
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Girl Scouts of the United States of America, or as we simply refer to them as Girl Scouts, is a youth organization for girls. It’s more than likely that you’ve seen their stands selling cookies and other forms of snacks at stands. It was first founded on March 12 of 1912, with the intention of building girls with confidence and courage to make them a bigger and better part of society. While the missions of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America still continue to this day with the same purpose, it makes others wonder whether or not they have the tax-exempt status. In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know about taxes and the Girl Scout.
What makes a tax-exempt organization?
Under Internal Revenue Service rules, for an organization to carry tax-exempt status, the organization must be a nonprofit. Think of charitable organizations and religious organizations like churches, and private foundations. Other nonprofits that only have a single source of income, but aren’t like private foundations that have cash flow from a single corporation that its parent organization is also tax-exempt. To put this all together, an organization must be a nonprofit to have the tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) – aside from the political organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 527.
As for the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, the organization is a nonprofit, thus, tax-exempt from federal income taxes. However, this doesn’t mean that the organization doesn’t have to report its income to the IRS. While individuals file Form 1040, nonprofits file Form 990 to report income earned to the Internal Revenue Service.
When purchasing cookies from a Girl Scout stand, you might think that it’s a charitable expense, but it’s actually not. This is because you’re buying something at a market value, not just giving away your money to the Girl Scout by making a donation. So, the cookies you buy from the Girl Scout aren’t deductible.
Do Girl Scouts of the United States of America get federal funding?
Yes, the Girl Scouts of the United States of America get federal funding from the federal government in particular from the Department of Education. The agency supports the nonprofit the same way as the Boy Scouts and also provides facilities to hold events.
The Girl Scout cookies are sold for the same price for every box. You can get them for $5 a box. Regardless of which cookie box you purchase, everything is $5.
