I have a few questions for anyone...
question number 1--I found out that my PTO is NOT tax-exempt but have been claining to be for the past few years. Can I, being the newly elected president, get into trouble with the law for this?

question number 2--By subscribing to or paying for PTO Today, is there some type of umbrella that my PTO would fall under to claim non-profit status??

1) Not if you stop doing it
2) No

I have a few questions for anyone...
question number 1--I found out that my PTO is NOT tax-exempt but have been claining to be for the past few years. Can I, being the newly elected president, get into trouble with the law for this?

question number 2--By subscribing to or paying for PTO Today, is there some type of umbrella that my PTO would fall under to claim non-profit status??

London gave the correct succinct answer. I'll try to elaborate a bit.

On 1 -- what do you mean by "claiming to be"? Filing official documents wroingly? Giving receipts that said such? Ot just operating like one and assuming you are one? If only the latter, you may not be totally off-base, as there is somewhat of an assumption on tax-exemptness if you're doing everything a sa tax-exempt would. You can't officially claim that you are a recognized 501c3 by the IRS, as that would be incorrect. But there is some gray below that.

2. London's right on #2. There is no umbrella for most PTOs. Some PTOs have gotten their own umbrella status at the local level (all of the PTOs ina given town, for example), but it's not common. PTO Today does offer a very good group insurance program that makes insurance pricing for parent groups very reasonable.

Tim

Unfortunately, it's not uncommon that PTO's claim to be tax exempt. People often do not understand the complexity of becoming a non-profit. They just assume that since they are performing charitable work, that's what they are officially.

When I joined my PTO, "everyone" said they were tax-exempt - meaning they didn't need to file taxes, that donations were considered charitable contributions, etc. Officers (and school officials) simply repeated what they had been told without understanding what it meant. I think a lot of us walk into that scenario.

Thank you to all who replied to my questions. My PTO board and I are filing all of the necessary paperwork to become "legal"