Ottawa Regional Hospital Foundation

“Ottawa Regional Hospital Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation that was formed in order to promote, encourage and foster religious and charitable activities in the City of Ottawa and other communities for the support of Ottawa Regional Hospital and Healthcare Center, a related tax-exempt organization.”

“Ottawa Regional Hospital Foundation (the ganization") has recently filed its 2021 Form 990 for the tax period September 30, 2022. The return was filed and accepted by the IRS on August 11, 2023. Subsequent to the timely filing of its 2021 Form 990 for the tax period September 30, 2022, the organization moved to dissolve and was delayed by the state of Illinois requirement to administratively dissolve the organization which was completed on February 10, 2023. The organization did not discover the completion of their administrative dissolution until January 11, 2024 at which point the initial due date for filing of the organization's final, short period 2022 Form 990 extension had already passed. The organization makes it a priority to always file its tax returns on a timely basis and has always filed a return for the Form 990. It was not until January of 2024 when the organization received a copy of their administrative dissolution from the state of Illinois and was made aware that they needed to file their final, short period tax return with a final year end date of February 10, 2023. Once the organization received the confirmation of dissolution, they immediately began preparing their final, short period tax return and engaged Crowe LLP ("Crowe"), a public accounting firm, to review and file the return. We believe that the information we have provided demonstrates that the organization has exercised due diligence in the administration and handling of its filing obligations and that any failure to file the 2022 Form 990 (1) did not result from "willful neglect" by the organization and (2) can only be due to "reasonable cause." The organization exercised due diligence; in that it engaged a public accounting firm that was experienced in handling tax-exempt clients. As a result, it was reasonable for the organization to continue to assume that its dissolution would be received timely from the state of Illinois. As noted in tax law, the only purpose for imposing penalties is to ensure voluntary compliance with the tax filing statutes. We therefore respectfully request that the late filing penalties be abated.”