The Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa, an Iowa City-based nonprofit founded in 2012, has paid $20,000 in penalties for late IRS tax filings in three consecutive years. The news was first reported by The Gazette and the Daily Iowan. From 2018-20, Form 990 filings show the nonprofit filed late. The CWJ is appealing the penalties. According […]
The Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa, an Iowa City-based nonprofit founded in 2012, has paid $20,000 in penalties for late IRS tax filings in three consecutive years.
The news was first reported by The Gazette and the Daily Iowan.
From 2018-20,
Form 990 filings show the nonprofit filed late. The CWJ is
appealing the penalties.
According to the Daily Iowan, Treasurer Charlie Eastham said the CWJ staff didn’t have the “necessary support” to adjust to filing the 990 form in 2018, rather than the simpler 990-EZ forms they had filed since 2012. In 2019, he said they filed late because his time was spread thin while running his campaign for the Iowa City Community School District school board.
The 990 form for the fiscal year ending in 2020 was filed Sept. 8, 2021. Executive Director Mazahir Salih said the nonprofit did not file late in 2020.
Mr. Eastham told The Gazette the CWJ
sent explanations for the late forms to the IRS, but the IRS didn’t receive them due to internal IRS filing delays. Fines were paid using private donations, not government funds, he said.
In 2015, the CWJ lost its
Iowa Secretary of State status. It earned back the designation in 2016.
According to the 990 Forms found on ProPublica’s website, the CWJ operated at a negative net income from 2017-19, overlapping with much of Ms. Salih’s spell as a city councilor.
From Our Home to Yours, a program managed by the CWJ,
received $65,000 from Iowa City and Johnson County in 2020, the Press-Citizen reported.
The Johnson County Board of Supervisors approved a five-year agreement worth $135,000 for a
bilingual wage theft organizer in June, according to the Daily Iowan.
