IRS Provides Additional Guidance Regarding Reinstatement of Exempt Status

The IRS recently issued Revenue Procedure 2014-11, 2014-3 I.R.B. 411 (the “Revenue Procedure”) providing procedures for reinstating the tax-exempt status of organizations that have had their tax-exempt status automatically revoked under section 6033(j) of the Internal Revenue Code for failure to file required annual returns or notices for three consecutive years. The Revenue Procedure modifies and supersedes Notice 2011-44, 2011-25 I.R.B. 883 (the “Notice”).

In general, the Notice permitted certain organizations to request reinstatement of its tax-exempt status effective from the date of the organization’s automatic revocation (“retroactive reinstatement”) if the organization filed its application for reinstatement of tax-exempt status within 15 months of the revocation and proved reasonable cause for failing to file the required annual return or notice in each of the three consecutive years and over the entire consecutive three-year period. The Revenue Procedure liberalizes the criteria for requesting retroactive reinstatement for an organization that (i) was eligible to file Form 990-EZ or Form 990-N for each of the three consecutive years it failed to file, (ii) has not previously had its tax-exempt status automatically revoked pursuant to section 6033(j), and (iii) files its application for reinstatement within 15 months of the revocation and pays the applicable user fee. Under the Revenue Procedure, such organizations will be deemed to have reasonable cause for its failures to file Form 990-EZ or Form 990-N, as applicable, for each of the three consecutive years and will be retroactively reinstated upon the IRS’s approval of such organization’s application for reinstatement.