The federal tax exemption of this organization was automatically revoked for its failure to file a Form 990-series return or notice for three consecutive years. The information listed below for each organization is historical; it is current as of the organization’s effective date of automatic revocation. The information is not necessarily current as of today’s date. Nor does this automatic revocation necessarily reflect the organization’s tax-exempt or non-exempt status. The organization may have applied to the IRS for recognition of exemption and been recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt after its effective date of automatic revocation. To check whether an organization is currently recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt, call Customer Account Services at (877) 829-5500 (toll-free number).
I should also note that tax-exempt organizations generally cannot set up funds for particular individuals. At least, they can’t do that and have donations be tax-deductible—I think they can safely administer an account.
I love the LessWrong community, it is great that this was found! David is contacting the IRS on Monday, as the Form 990-series was something we had not needed to turn in for many years. If we get the form in then the status is retroactive though, so he thinks it will be resolved within a week. When we raised funds for the preservation of William O’ Rights in ’08 and ’09 people were able to use donations for tax deductions.
It should be clear that we do not raise money for an individual, as the money does not go to an individual. The money raised will only go to a cryonics organization to preserve a legally dead individual, if the person that the charity was set up for is not preserved for any reason then the money will be refunded to the donor if they wish.
Out of the 3 previous cryonics charity funds run by the Venturists, two were successful (one is still animate -James Swayze—and one was preserved -William O’ Rights) when Marce was not able to be preserved many had their donations refunded and some chose to transfer their donation to William’s case. Thank you to everyone that is helping Kim—she’d like to be preserved at either Alcor or Cryonics Institute depending on how much is raised. I have hope that we will at least get the funds for CI—she finds comfort in either as she says.
Let me explain what I heard from David. The notification of the Venturist status being on hold had been sent to an older address and not forwarded. David is looking into it and should have an answer on Monday. He is saying that it appears to be an error, since we were never notified that the tax status was on hold -and the reasons for it don’t apply to our case. The reason was an automatic revocation from not receiving a 990 series form that the Ventursits had not needed to fill out for many years, so it looks like the issue will be resolved soon-within a week he thinks, he will also be writing you himself. The paperwork that said we were on hold, also says it may/or may not effect our tax deduction status—it looks like we just need to get the right paperwork in. The way the wording is, is that if we get the right form in our status is retroactively instated. I’m not sure when this started, but people were able to use donations to William O’ Rights Cryonics Charity fund in ’08 and ’09 as a tax deduction.
Summary: There was confusion about paperwork requirements, and it should be resolved within a week.
“We have just learned that our tax deduction status was automatically and wrongfully suspended by the IRS for not filing a form 990. In the past the IRS confirmed that we don’t have to file that form. However it seems recently their equipment automatically suspended us. We are tax exempt, they have made an error and I will contact them on Monday. There is a process where the retroactively remove the organization from their auto-recovation list. That is what we are going to ask them to do although Idon’t know how long it will take them to restore us. Meanwhile, I believe that people can continue to make donations and deduct them.”
We have found more information out, it does seem that we can get it resolved but don’t know exactly how long it will take. Over 200,000 organizations had the same thing happen to them so a lot has been written about it.
“Notice 2011-43
This notice provides transitional relief for certain small organizations that have
lost their tax-exempt status because they failed to file a required annual electronic notice (Form 990-N e-Postcard) for taxable years beginning in 2007, 2008 and 2009. A small organization – that is, one that normally has annual gross receipts of not more than $50,000 in its most recently completed taxable year – that qualifies for the transitional relief under this notice and applies for reinstatement of tax-exempt status by December 31, 2012, will be treated by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) as having established reasonable cause for its filing failures and its tax-exempt status will be reinstated retroactive to the date it was automatically revoked.”
This concerns me (via STL):
IRS.gov: Automatic Revocation of Exemption Information
I should also note that tax-exempt organizations generally cannot set up funds for particular individuals. At least, they can’t do that and have donations be tax-deductible—I think they can safely administer an account.
I love the LessWrong community, it is great that this was found! David is contacting the IRS on Monday, as the Form 990-series was something we had not needed to turn in for many years. If we get the form in then the status is retroactive though, so he thinks it will be resolved within a week. When we raised funds for the preservation of William O’ Rights in ’08 and ’09 people were able to use donations for tax deductions.
It should be clear that we do not raise money for an individual, as the money does not go to an individual. The money raised will only go to a cryonics organization to preserve a legally dead individual, if the person that the charity was set up for is not preserved for any reason then the money will be refunded to the donor if they wish.
Out of the 3 previous cryonics charity funds run by the Venturists, two were successful (one is still animate -James Swayze—and one was preserved -William O’ Rights) when Marce was not able to be preserved many had their donations refunded and some chose to transfer their donation to William’s case. Thank you to everyone that is helping Kim—she’d like to be preserved at either Alcor or Cryonics Institute depending on how much is raised. I have hope that we will at least get the funds for CI—she finds comfort in either as she says.
From Shannon Vyff in an email on this issue:
Summary: There was confusion about paperwork requirements, and it should be resolved within a week.
(ETA: Shannon posts on this directly)
Here is what David Pizer said,
“We have just learned that our tax deduction status was automatically and wrongfully suspended by the IRS for not filing a form 990. In the past the IRS confirmed that we don’t have to file that form. However it seems recently their equipment automatically suspended us. We are tax exempt, they have made an error and I will contact them on Monday. There is a process where the retroactively remove the organization from their auto-recovation list. That is what we are going to ask them to do although Idon’t know how long it will take them to restore us. Meanwhile, I believe that people can continue to make donations and deduct them.”
We have found more information out, it does seem that we can get it resolved but don’t know exactly how long it will take. Over 200,000 organizations had the same thing happen to them so a lot has been written about it.
“Notice 2011-43 This notice provides transitional relief for certain small organizations that have lost their tax-exempt status because they failed to file a required annual electronic notice (Form 990-N e-Postcard) for taxable years beginning in 2007, 2008 and 2009. A small organization – that is, one that normally has annual gross receipts of not more than $50,000 in its most recently completed taxable year – that qualifies for the transitional relief under this notice and applies for reinstatement of tax-exempt status by December 31, 2012, will be treated by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) as having established reasonable cause for its filing failures and its tax-exempt status will be reinstated retroactive to the date it was automatically revoked.”
Mark has been getting it resolved and has found some great information on the problem: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=240239,00.html
A cryonicist found these for us:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-11-43.pdf
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/n2011_44.pdf
http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=240101,00.html
http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=239696,00.html
http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=169250,00.html