Is the IRS about to pull the tax-exempt status of your nonprofit? Better check now.

The IRS has released a state-by-state list of nonprofits that are at risk of automatically losing their tax exempt status for failure to file required reports for three consecutive years. They are giving small groups an extension to October 15, but after that, you are out of luck.

According to the IRS site:

“This one-time relief benefits Form 990-N (e-Postcard) and Form 990-EZ filers only. Organizations required to file Form 990 or Form 990-PF are not eligible and are automatically revoked if they fail to file for three consecutive years.” Any organization that loses its tax-exempt status will have to reapply.

In quickly looking through the over 1,100 nonprofits on the RI list, I noticed at least one of my former clients whom I had told years ago when I worked with them briefly that they needed to file a 990 (I’ve let them know they are on the list) and surprisingly many veterans organizations.

This is pretty serious stuff.  You can find the list on the IRS web site by clicking here. If you haven’t been sending any annual 990s to the IRS, especially if you are a very small nonprofit that was previously exempt from filing, you would be well-served to scroll through your state’s list.