Nearly 15,000 Florida charities at risk of losing tax-exempt status

The IRS recently published a list of 14,773 Florida charities that must file tax returns by Oct. 15, 2010 to avoid losing their tax-exempt status, including nearly 1,200 charities in northwest Florida.

Many of the organizations on the list are small, community-based organizations, including many service clubs, foundations and school-based groups. The list includes organizations that have not filed returns for the last three years, though other organizations not on the list may also be at risk. But for those charities that are at risk of losing their tax-exempt status for failure to file a notice or return, the IRS is offering a “One-Time Filing Relief” which allows small charities extra time to file returns.

The IRS will automatically revoke the tax-exempt status of charities that do not file a return by Oct. 15, 2010 and will publish a list of those organizations in early 2011. Donors who make a donation to those revoked organizations after the list is published may not deduct those contributions on their tax returns.

“I suspect that many of the charities on this list are those that were not required to file a return prior to a change in the law in 2007,” said Norman Wright, president and CEO of your BBB Serving Northwest Florida. “However, the IRS has been sending multiple notices to these organizations because this is such a big threat to the smallest charities in our service area.”

A list of these at-risk organizations is available from the IRS at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/fl.pdf.

In conducting its Charity Review Program, BBB verifies charities are indeed tax-exempt as well as registered to solicit in the state of Florida. For additional information and advice that charities and donors can trust, start with bbb.org/charity.




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