Jackson Hole Land Trust

“A draft of the form 990 is provided to the finance committee for review. The finance committee then takes the 990 to the full board for approval before the 990 is filed.”

“At every committee and board meeting discussion is held regarding whether any conflicts of interest, real or apparent, exist. If they do, that committee member is asked to leave the room before the discussion and vote take place.”

“The Board Chair reviews the President through process of annual meeting with President including review and approval of any compensation.”

“Key employees are reviewed annually and approved by the President.”

“The governing documents, policies and financial statements of the jackson hole land trust are available to the public upon request at the land trust's office.”

“March 10, 2022To Whom It May Concern:We, Bement & Company, prepared and remitted this e-filed Form 990 and Form 990T. We are aware that the return is being filed late and that the entity, Jackson Hole Land Trust, is subject to late fling penalties under Internal Revenue Code section 6652(c)(1). We estimate the penalty will be $2,415. We respectfully request that the late filing penalty be abated based on the IRSs reasonable cause criteria. According to IRM 20.1.1.3.2, Reasonable cause, the IRS provides relief from a penalty based on reasonable cause when the taxpayer exercised ordinary business care and prudence in determining his or her tax obligations but was nevertheless unable to comply with those obligations.The taxpayer was unable to timely file the tax return or request an extension, due to unusual circumstances that were outside of the ordinary business care and prudence exercised.Unusual circumstances consisted of the following:The taxpayer needed to file an extension. The taxpayer for the last 13 fiscal years from September 30, 2008 through the September 30, 2020 has never had to request an extension. All 990 and 990T tax forms were filed on or before the original due date of February 15th. The fact that an extension was necessary was in and of itself an unusual situation for the taxpayer.Also unusual was the fact that the September 30, 2021 year was the first year a Single Audit under Uniform Standards had been required since the September 30, 2006 year. The additional work on the Single Audit was an unusual circumstance which delayed finalizing the taxpayers audited financial statements and resulted in the preparation of the tax returns being delayed beyond the original due date of February 15th. In addition to preparing the tax returns, we also performed the Single Audit. The taxpayer requested us to file an extension on their behalf. Amidst the unusual circumstances of the increased workload and time commitment of performing and finalizing the Single audit and preparing for a finance committee meeting to present the audit on February 14th, we thought that we had previously requested the extension electronically. Two of our office staff involved in checking return statuses and extensions both experienced family deaths, one a mother-in-law on January 21 and the other staff lost her father on February 6th. Both office staff had to miss time for funeral preparations and to spend time with family. Amidst the missed time and workload sharing due to the unusual and unexpected circumstances, the status of taxpayers tax returns and extensions were not verified.On March 3rd as we were preparing the tax returns we discovered the extension had never been sent electronically.We took immediate action to finalize the tax returns and sent drafts to the taxpayer. The taxpayer called an emergency finance committee meeting and board meeting for the sole purpose of reviewing and approving the 990 and 990T. One week after discovery of the noncompliance, the tax returns have been filed.The taxpayer exercised ordinary business care and prudence by recognizing the need for an extension and requesting we file an extension on their behalf. We were not negligent or careless; we exercised ordinary business care and prudence by having in place a system that resulted in timely filing of the tax returns before the original due date of the tax return for the past 13 years. We exercise ordinary business care and prudence by having a system in place to identify tax returns that had not been filed and which have not yet been extended by the preparers.To prevent the same situation from happening in the future we are in the process of adding electronic reminders for those fiscal year clients which do not share the same due dates as calendar year clients. The electronic reminders will go to several office staff, in case one is away from the office or otherwise busy with other work. We will also create a shared document with all fiscal year clients an”