5/17/2010

Around Half a Million U.S. Charities Losing Tax Exempt Status

Today has gotta be a very, very bad Monday for lotsa folks that work for non-profits around the country. 

That's because last Friday, May 15, 2010, around a half-million charities in this country lost their non-profit status.  Well, maybe it's a bad Monday if they're aware of what has just happened to them.

According to the story in last month's New York Times, "One-Fourth of Nonprofits Are to Lose Tax Breaks," by Stephanie Strom, many of these charities may not be aware of their lost tax exemption.  Most of these do-gooders operated at $25K in revenue or less, and may or may not have been filing tax forms (because they may not have been required to do so in past years). 

USA Today points to organizations like kid's baseball teams and soup kitchens being hit by this. 

Fortunately, there's some help here:  The National Center for Charitable Statistics has posted an online list, state by state, of nonprofits that may be hit by this deadline.  And, they've also got the info on what these organizations need to do in order to prevent their donations from being taxed. 

Taxing a soup kitchen?  Really????