Thursday, June 16, 2011

IRS Automatic Revocation of Tax-Exempt Status

The IRS has published the first Automatic Revocation of Exemption List. It indicates approximately 275,000 nonprofits whose tax-exempt status has been revoked because they failed to file a Form 990, 990-N, 990-EZ, or 990-PF for three consecutive years; the list is available for downloading in both Excel and PDF form. Here's the PDF of the New York State list.

As GuideStar notes, if an organization appears on the list, it must now must file a federal income tax return and pay federal income taxes. If it previously could accept tax-deductible contributions, it no longer can do so. "If your organization is not on the list, technically you don't have to do anything. This a good time, however, to reach out to your donors, funders, and other constituents and assure them that you are in good standing with the IRS. You may also wish to suggest that your supporters consult the list to ensure that the other nonprofits they give to are still exempt."

I'm pleased to note that the Friends of the Albany Public Library is NOT on the list. So you may continue to make your tax-deductable contributions to the organization.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to hear Friends of the Albany Public Library was not among those that lost their exempt status.

Folks who visit your site might want to know, however, that the IRS is offering transitional relief for small revoked groups. It's one of the best deals I've seen in my four decades of professional involvement with non-profit taxes.

If an organization can honestly say there is still a need their non-profit, and feels it can muster the human and other resources needed to sustain it, they should not pass up this opportunity to regain their tax exempt status.

There are no shortcuts. A new exemption application (and User Fee) is required, but for organizations with annual gross receipts normally less than $50,000, the User Fee will be reduced to only $100 and reinstatement will be retroactive. The offer is only good through December 31, 2012. Details are at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-11-43.pdf.