165 Knoxville Non-Profit Organizations Lose Tax-Exempt Status with IRS

The Internal Revenue Service has named 165 Knoxville non-profit organizations that have lost their tax-exempt status because they failed to file legally required annual reports for three consecutive years.
View Knoxville list here. Gatlinburg list, Pigeon Forge list, Sevierville list, Seymour list.

Although the IRS believes most of these organizations are defunct, they have provided special steps to assist any existing organizations to apply for reinstatement of their tax-exempt status.

Congress passed the Pension Protection Act (PPA) in 2006, requiring most tax-exempt organizations to file an annual information return or notice with the IRS. For small organizations, the law imposed a filing requirement for the first time in 2007. In addition, the law automatically revokes the tax-exempt status of any organization that does not file required returns or notices for three consecutive years.

For several years, the IRS has made an extensive effort to inform organizations of the changes in the law through multiple outreach and education avenues, including mailing more than 1 million notices to organizations that had not filed. In addition, last year the IRS published a list of at-risk groups and gave smaller organizations an additional five months to file required notices and come into compliance.

"During the past several years, the IRS has gone the extra mile to help make tax-exempt groups aware of their legal filing requirement and allow them additional time to file," IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said. "Still, we realize there may be some legitimate organizations, especially very small ones, that were unaware of their new filing requirement. We are taking additional steps for these groups to maintain their tax-exempt status without jeopardizing their operations or harming their donors."

Small organizations can regain their tax-exempt status retroactive to the date of revocation and pay a reduced application fee of $100 rather than the typical $400 or $850 fee. Full details are available in Notice 2011-43 www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-11-43.pdf, Notice 2011-44 www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-11-44.pdf and Revenue Procedure 2011-36 www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-11-36.pdf.

If an organization appears on the list of organizations whose tax-exempt status has been automatically revoked it is because IRS records indicate the organization had a filing requirement and did not file the required returns or notices for 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Donations made prior to the publication of an organization's name on the list remain tax-deductible. Organizations that are on the auto-revocation list that do not receive reinstatement are no longer eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions, and any income they receive may be taxable.

Existing organizations that seek to have their tax-exempt status reinstated must complete an application and pay a user fee regardless of whether they were originally required to file such an application. More information on the reinstatement process, including retroactive reinstatement, can be found on IRS.gov.

The list of Knoxville non-profit organizations which have lost their tax-exempt status are listed here.

Published June 14, 2011, 11:09 a.m.

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