The Internal Revenue Service is giving organizations that have had their tax exemptions revoked because they failed to file a tax return a way to revive their tax-exempt status.
An organization that was eligible to file either the Form 990-EZ, “Short Form Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax,” or Form 990-N, “e-Postcard,” for each of the three consecutive years that it failed to file, and that has not previously had its tax-exempt status automatically revoked, can use a process described in the revenue procedure to apply for a streamlined retroactive reinstatement of its tax-exempt status if it applies within 15 months after the later of the date of the revocation letter, or the date on which the IRS posted the organization’s name on a revocation list.
An organization that is not eligible to use the streamlined process can use another process described in the revenue procedure to apply for retroactive reinstatement of its tax-exempt status if it applies no later than 15 months after either the date of the revocation letter or the date on which the IRS posted the organization’s name on a revocation list.
The revenue procedure does not apply to groups that have had their tax-exempt status revoked because they engaged in political election-related activities. The IRS has faced controversy over the past year because of delays in approving tax-exempt status for Tea Party-affiliated groups and recently announced proposed regulations for how it would determine whether groups meet the definition of a social welfare organization under Section 501(c)4 of the Tax Code (see
