IRS Law Revokes 23 Hazelwood Nonprofits' Exemption Status

Recently the IRS revoked tax exemptions for 275,000 nonprofit organizations, more than 6,000 of which resided in Missouri. The revocations happened because the organizations failed to file their annual forms for three consecutive years; 2007, 2008 and 2009.

As of the passing of the Pension Protection Act in 2006, tax-exempt organizations other than churches and church-related organizations are required to file an annual notice with the IRS. Those who do not file three years in a row automatically lose their exempt status. 

Though some nonprofits claim they did not file because they were not made aware of the changes, the IRS has a different opinion. Michael Devine, IRS rep for Kansas and Missouri, said those affected were alerted well ahead of time.

“We sent letters and postcards to many organizations because we wanted to let them be aware that the law changed,” Devine said. “There was a lot of information in the media about this.”

The purpose of this part of the Pension Protection Act was to differentiate working from non-working organizations and to then purge the non-working ones from IRS records. Many of the nonprofit agencies went out of business years ago but are still on the books, thus skewing the statistics and information.

There are roughly 23 nonprofits in Hazelwood that have had their status revoked. When Patch tried to contact them, a hefty majority had no working telephone number listed.

For those businesses that are actually operational, the consequences of losing exemption status are having to pay federal taxes and donors not being able to claim their contributions as a tax write-off, unless they donated before the revocation date. Once an organization loses their status the IRS cannot undo it and there is no appeal process.

The business must apply to be reinstated and pay a user fee; typically $400-$850, but based on annual gross receipts. They may request retroactive reinstatement after proving reasonable cause.

This filing requirement was passed in 2007 for smaller organizations and they may be eligible for a reduced user fee of $100 and have less strenuous criteria to claim retroactive reinstatement.

Before you donate, check out the updated Publication 78, Cumulative List of Organizations, to check the tax exempt status of an organization

Below is a list of Hazelwood nonprofits that have had their status revoked:

• OPERATION KIDSAFE INC, 5976 HOWDERSHELL  STE 109
• MO CONGRESS OF PETROLEUM, PO BOX 3
• HAZELWOOD YOUTH ATHLETIC, PO BOX 11
• ACTIVE NEIGHBORS ORGANIZATION, 5354 VILLE ANGELA
• TONI, AMY, & NATHAN WUNDERLI MEMORIAL, 1081 TESON
• HAVEN AGAINST VIOLENT ENVIRONMENTS, 7380 HOWDERSHELL
• HISPANIC CENTER,  4201 DUNN
• NORTH COUNTY 80- GROUP,  12 VILLE DONNA
• MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SOCIETY SERVICES, 1496 VILLE ROSA
• JUNIOR WILDCAT ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, 513 IMPALA
• GETHSEMANE HOUSE, 7361 NORMANDIE APT 1
• PATTONVILLE RETIREES ASSOCIATION, 7416 SUNSET
• FRIENDS FOR KIDS, 7415 SIELOFF
• HAZELWOOD PLANT EMPLOYEES CHARITY, 5810 FEE FEE
• RIEGEL CARTON PLANT EMPLOYEES, 5810 FEE FEE
• COULTER LEARNING CENTER, 349 SUMMIT
• NO FOX TROT DANCE CLUB, 468 CHAPEL RIDGE
• AMATEUR ATHLETIC UNION, 320 BROOKES STE 123
• ORDER OF THE EASTERN STAR OF MO, 7251 N HANLEY
• RAGGDOLL XTREME, 6937 BERKRIDGE
• NATIONAL FORMER AND CONCERNED, 644 COACH LIGHT
• ST LOUIS JUNIOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE, 431 CHEZ PAREE
• JEWEL RESEARCH & EDUCATION, 320 BROOKS  STE 123