IRS making list, checking up on nonprofits that don’t file

Your friendly Internal Revenue Service doesn’t really want to revoke the nonprofit status of more than 1,800 small Nevada nonprofits.

But it will.

Small nonprofits that haven’t filed an IRS 990-N or Form 990-EZ for the past three years have until Oct. 15 to straighten up and fly right.

In addition to Nevada’s 1,800 nonprofits, nearly 300,000 nationally are in this dicey situation.

If you donate to a charity that loses its nonprofit status, you can forget about deducting that donation from your taxes. The nonprofits actually could get taxed on their donations.

Larger nonprofits, which file a regular IRS 900 and fail to file for three consecutive years, automatically lose nonprofit status.

In defense of the smaller tax-exempt nonprofits, they didn’t have to file before 2007 and so may not have known. But a change in the law in 2006 mandated that smaller nonprofits file an annual return with the IRS. If they fail to file for three consecutive years, they too automatically lose their tax-exempt status.

Just because they lose their nonprofit status doesn’t mean they can’t get it back.

Because so many are on the Nevada list, I thought getting the word out might save some very worthy groups some hassle.

In its mercy, the IRS is offering this one-time relief for those organizations that missed filing for 2007, 2008 and 2009. Get up to date between now and Oct. 15 and you’ll be in good shape if you keep current after that. Don’t, and Uncle Sam’s ax will fall.

The state-by-state list is on the IRS’s website at www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=225889,00.html.

The long list seems to indicate many obscure nonprofits aren’t in compliance, but you’ve heard of many and perhaps have given them your hard-earned money. (Happy Labor Day, by the way.)

I found organizations involving various diseases, animals galore, firefighters, cops and journalists, all at risk of losing their nonprofit status if they don’t get off their collective duffs.

Some obviously are groups that no longer exist and probably don’t care if the IRS wipes them off the books.

Others on the list are still holding events, like the Clark County Fire Fighters Burn Foundation and the Las Vegas Celtic Society. Is the Black Police Offers Association still a group? How about the Clark County Sheriffs Jeep Posse? Nevada Search and Rescue Inc.?

There seems to be an inordinate amount of animal groups not in compliance — Media Partners for Pets, Absolutely Cats, the Bless the Beasts and the Children Foundation, the Boston Terrier Club Rescue of Southern Nevada and many others.

The Humane Society of Southern Nevada-SPCA is one group that probably takes in a fair amount of money, but it’s listed as facing revocation.

Fraternities and sororities are on the list. So are veterans groups, including the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America and Veterans in Politics.

You’d think Friends of the Clark County Law Library might follow the tax laws, but nope, they’re on the list.

"The IRS does not want to necessarily revoke the exempt status of small exempt organizations," said Raphael Tulino, media relations officer for the IRS. "In fact, we’d like for them to file by Oct. 15 to avoid that."

Some are groups that are in the news, such as Gleaners, Suicide Prevention Center of Clark County, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee of Las Vegas, UNITE HERE 227 Local, and the U.S. Wild Horse and Burro Foundation.

My favorite name on the list is based in Pahrump: the Monday Night Gutter Girls.

Kind of hoping that’s a bowling group.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 702- 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.