Have You Been Delisted by The IRS?

The IRS has just published the first Automatic Revocation of Exemption List. It lists about 275,000 nonprofits whose tax-exempt status has been revoked because they failed to file a Form 990, 990-N, 990-EZ, or 990-PF for three consecutive years.

If your organization appears on the list, you must now must file a federal income tax return and pay federal income taxes. If you previously could accept tax-deductible contributions, you no longer can do so.

Organizations that are affected can ask the IRS to reinstate their tax-exempt status retroactively. Applying can cost as much as $850, but the fee will be reduced for small groups that can prove they had good reason not to comply with the paperwork rules.

“It looks like the IRS is bending over backward to allow for retroactive re-establishment of tax-exempt status,” said Marcus S. Owens, a Washington lawyer who formerly headed the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt division.

If you’ve found your organization on this list, contact your accountant or SGA Group immediately.