The IRS announced recently that they will be extending the January and February submission deadlines for tax-exempt organizations' annual returns until March 30, 2012. (This extension applies to organizations with a fiscal year end of August 31st or September 30th.) The extension applies to Forms 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF, or 1120-POL. Form 990-N filers will not be affected.
This extension was granted because the part of the online e-file system that processes returns for tax-exempt organizations will be off-line for those two months. (The rest of the e-file system will be operational during this time.)
Organizations with 8/31 or 9/30 fiscal year ends will not need to apply to get the March 30th extension; however, in order to avoid receiving a late filing penalty notice, a statement outlining the reasonable cause should be attached to the tax return. If your organization receives a late-filing penalty notice, you should contact the IRS so that the penalties can be abated.
Further details are available here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-12-04.pdf
