Perhaps because most non-profits have no income on which they would pay taxes, filing forms with the Internal Revenue Service might not be high on their to-do lists. But that doesn’t mean the IRS is ignoring them. In fact, with the passage of the Pension Protection Act in 2006, most tax-exempt organizations are now required to file an annual return with the IRS and risk revocation of their tax-exempt status if returns are not filed for three consecutive years.
The IRS says it has gone “the extra mile” to alert non-profits to the changes, including mailing more than 1 million notices to organizations that had not filed. Last year the agency gave smaller organizations a five-month extension. About 50,000 organizations came into compliance.
Still, as of June 8, about 275,000 organizations nationwide had lost their nonprofit status because of failure to file. While some of the organizations listed are likely defunct, others are still active and can follow IRS guidelines for having their nonprofit status reinstated.
Roughly 700 Princeton-area organizations appear on the IRS list that was distributed to the media in what is obviously another way of publicizing the new requirement. Among the organizations listed:
Bordentown: The Thomas Paine Society.
Ewing: Ewing Edge Softball and the Rollin’ Oldies Car Club.
Hamilton: Hamilton High West Hornet Football and the Fraternal Order of Police.
Hightstown: The YWCA and Hightstown-East Windsor Chamber of Commerce.
Hopewell: The Little League Baseball Association and the Hit and Miss Rod and Gun Club.
Lawrenceville: Loaves and Fishes Community Dinners, the Medical Society of New Jersey, the New Jersey Higher Education Alliance, and the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church.
New Brunswick: Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the Lesbian and Gay Coalition of New Jersey.
Pennington: the Borough of Pennington and the Princeton Area Swimming and Diving Association.
Princeton: Princeton University Classes of 2006, 2007, and 2008; the Princeton Middle East Society; the Bristol-Myers Squibb Employee Association; Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity; and the Canadian-American Chamber of Commerce.
Princeton Junction: The Anthony Pappalardo Scholarship Fund.
Trenton: the Trenton Development Corporation.
As the IRS notes: “Publication of an organization’s name on the list of automatically revoked organizations serves as notice to donors and others that the organization is no longer eligible to received tax-deductible contributions.” Complete listings for all states are available at 1.usa.gov/501c3s.
