Kentucky charity registration close-out

Inventory Kentucky-directed mail and email, donation pages, national checkout flows, grants, events, peer-to-peer campaigns, chapters, professional fundraisers, and third-party appeals. Record the last date each channel could solicit or accept a Kentucky contribution and preserve screenshots, contract notices, campaign shutdowns, and board decisions. An inactive employee login or an expired campaign does not by itself prove all solicitation ended.

KRS 367.657 applies when an organization solicits contributions in the Commonwealth or contributions are solicited for it. Close-out analysis should therefore cover the organization and others acting on its behalf. If fundraising may continue, the task is an annual filing or exemption review, not a withdrawal label.

List each year in which contributors were solicited in Kentucky. For a Form 990-series filer, reconcile the exact return submitted to the IRS and the copy filed with the Attorney General. The state requires the annual copy at the same time as the federal filing. For a year without a federal return, determine whether a notice of intent was required and remember that a notice expires December 31 of the filing year.

Resolve missing attachments, identity mismatches, affiliate information, and agency questions before requesting closure. The no-fee rule does not remove the annual reporting obligation. Keep final returns, notice records, delivery evidence, public-list captures, and correspondence in one close-out file.

The Attorney General’s current registration page publishes initial and annual filing instructions but not a universal charitable-organization withdrawal form. Use the listed Charity Division contact to ask what the exact record requires after solicitation ends. Provide the legal name, EIN, Kentucky filing history, last solicitation date, final federal-return position, chapters, and a clear description of the requested record outcome.

Ask for a written response and answer any follow-up from the reconciled file. Do not assume that silence, a returned device, an absent listing, or a corporate dissolution automatically closes the charity record. Record-specific direction is especially important where past solicitation, open years, a name change, or an affiliate structure makes the public signal ambiguous.

The Kentucky Secretary of State explains that a domestic entity closes through articles of dissolution and a foreign entity through a certificate of withdrawal. Its nonprofit articles of dissolution are a separate business filing. Completing that filing does not itself prove that every Attorney General charity-reporting obligation was resolved.

Create separate workstreams for the charity record, corporate authority, Kentucky tax accounts, employment accounts, contracts, restricted assets, grants, professional fundraising arrangements, and every other state. Obtain appropriate professional guidance for governance and asset questions. Do not describe a charity as dissolved merely because solicitation stopped or the Attorney General record was closed.

The IRS uses the organization’s final Form 990-series return or notice to report termination, and Form 990 or 990-EZ filers may need Schedule N and supporting dissolution or liquidation records. That federal step is distinct from Kentucky’s charity record. Align dates and facts across the board record, state entity filing, final federal return, and Attorney General correspondence without treating one as a substitute for another.

A close-out file should contain solicitation-shutdown evidence, all final Kentucky annual items, delivery proof, the public-list check, written Charity Division direction, entity documents, final federal filing evidence, and an owner for later notices. If fundraising resumes, reevaluate Kentucky registration before launching the campaign.