The Internal Revenue Service is changing some of the forms and procedures that organizations can use to apply for tax-exempt status as it seeks to emerge from a high-profile scandal last year over how it handled applications from political groups.
The IRS’s Exempt Organizations office said in an email Friday to charities and nonprofits that it has updated the alternate version of Form 1023, Application for Recognition of Exemption. The application, which incorporates changes suggested by the public, became available at the end of December and includes information about the current user fee.
The
Some of the benefits of the new interactive form, according to the IRS, will be that applicants will be able to submit a more complete form, while IRS processing time will be reduced. In addition, applicants will receive a tax-exempt determination more quickly from the IRS. Last year, a number of Tea Party-affiliated groups and other conservative organizations complained that the IRS was taking a long time to approve their applications for tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)4 of the Tax Code—which governs social welfare organizations—and subjecting them to extra scrutiny.
The IRS admitted that it had improperly used so-called “Be on the Lookout,” or BOLO, lists to group together applications from conservative organizations with terms like “Tea Party,” “Patriot” and “9/12” in their names. Amid a congressional investigation, the IRS released documents indicating that it had also given extra scrutiny to applications from liberal groups with terms like “Progressive” and “Occupy” in their names. The former head of the EO unit at the IRS, Lois Lerner, stepped down in the wake of the scandal, along with several other high-ranking IRS officials.
Last November, the IRS released
In the meantime, the IRS has been making changes in how groups can apply for tax-exempt status, introducing a way last June for groups to self-certify themselves ahead of time if they agree to operate within certain limits for political and social activity (see
The new i1023 form that was introduced in December is based on recommendations by the IRS’s external Advisory Committee on Tax-Exempt and Government Entities, the IRS said in its email Friday. The IRS is asking for feedback on the new form. Interested parties can send their comments about the form to
New Revenue Procedures
The IRS is also now changing some of its processes for approving tax-exempt applications under other sections of the Tax Code besides 501(c)4. A new revenue procedure,
Another new revenue procedure,
Also of interest to tax-exempt organizations, the IRS has issued
In addition, Rev. Proc. 20145 is a general update of