We're Ren Studio. We do paperwork for small organizations that run on volunteers — and this particular piece of paperwork is the one small nonprofits dread most, mostly because nobody explains it in plain words. So, plain words:
Every tax-exempt group has to check in with the IRS once a year. Small groups file Form 990-N, a free online postcard that asks eight basic questions. Miss it three years running and the IRS cancels your exemption automatically — no hearing, no appeal, and often no warning you ever see. The cancellation takes effect on the due date of that third missed filing. Most groups find out the hard way.
What "cancelled" actually costs you
- Donations stop being tax-deductible for your donors — and the big giving platforms check the IRS list and quietly drop groups that are on it.
- Grants freeze. Foundations verify your status before they pay out. A revoked group fails that check.
- Your group can owe income tax like an ordinary business for the period it's revoked.
- The clock is running: apply within 15 months of the revocation and, if your group qualifies, the IRS can restore your status retroactive to the day it lapsed — no gap. Past that window, the road back is longer and the gap may stay.
Not sure whether your group is actually on the list? Check first — it's free, and it takes two minutes: how to check your nonprofit's IRS status.
Start my reinstatement
Use the subject line NONPROFIT + your organization's name. Tell us roughly when you found out and whether you've seen a revocation letter — we'll reply with a short list of what to send and a firm start date.
What we do — the whole pile, handled
- Eligibility check first. We confirm your group is actually revoked, find the revocation date, and work out which road back fits: the short Form 1023-EZ or the full Form 1023, and whether you qualify for retroactive reinstatement inside the 15-month window.
- The application, assembled. Every form section completed from your documents, the supporting papers gathered and organized — a submission-ready package, not a stack of blanks.
- Your reasonable-cause statement, written. Where the IRS asks why the filings were missed, we draft the statement from your facts — what actually happened, in order, in plain language. You review and approve every word before anything is filed.
- A filing checklist you can follow. Exactly what gets submitted, where, and in what order — including the IRS fee payment through Pay.gov — so nothing stalls on a missing piece.
- A person checks it. Every package is reviewed by a person before it goes back to you. The IRS makes the decision; our job is that your application arrives complete, consistent, and on time.
How it works
1. You send what you have — that's your whole job
Your EIN, any IRS letters you've received, and basic facts about the group: what it does, who runs it, roughly what it took in each year. We send you a short questionnaire; most groups finish it in one sitting.
2. We build the package and draft your statement
We confirm the revocation details against IRS records, pick the right form, assemble everything, and draft the reasonable-cause statement from your answers. Anything we can't pin down goes on a short list of questions — usually answered in one reply.
3. You review, sign, and submit
The package comes back to you submission-ready, with the checklist. Your officer reviews it, signs, and submits through Pay.gov — your group's application, from your group. We stay on the thread for IRS follow-up questions.
Pricing — flat, published, no quote games
Reinstatement
$445 flat
- Eligibility check + the right form, chosen for you
- Full application package, assembled
- Reasonable-cause statement drafted from your facts
- Filing checklist + submission-ready files
- Plus the IRS fee at cost: $275 (1023-EZ) or $600 (1023) — paid to the IRS, not to us
Filing Guard
$129/yr
- Your yearly 990-N calendared and filed for you
- Bigger filer? We remind and prep for your 990-EZ or 990 instead
- We watch your IRS status and alert you before anything lapses
- So no treasurer change ever costs you your status again
Add-on: state renewals
$295/state/yr
- Charity fundraising registration renewals, handled per state
- Most states require renewal every year, usually with your Form 990 attached
- Pairs with the Filing Guard — one calendar, nothing missed
For comparison: the established firms in this space don't publish a price at all — you fill out a form and wait for a quote — and published attorney flat fees for this same reinstatement run to $2,999. Ours is $445, on the page, before you ever email us.
Who this is for
PTOs and PTAs. Booster clubs. Youth sports leagues. Small charities and community groups. Church-related groups with their own EIN and exemption — a church school, a preschool, a separately incorporated ministry. One honest note: churches themselves generally aren't required to file the yearly Form 990 series at all, so a church that never filed usually has nothing to reinstate. If you're not sure which side of that line your group sits on, the eligibility check sorts it out — that's what it's for.
What we don't do — on purpose
We never promise IRS approval. The IRS decides every reinstatement, and anyone who guarantees you one is selling you something. What we promise is a complete, accurate, on-time package. This is document preparation and filing help, not legal or tax advice — we're not attorneys or CPAs. If your situation involves tax owed for the revoked period, unrelated business income, or anything contested, we'll tell you plainly that you need a nonprofit attorney or CPA, and your package work still counts toward what they'll need.
One more thing, in case you also sell products: if your group sells merchandise into Minnesota, there's a separate state deadline that has nothing to do with the IRS — Minnesota's PFAS-in-products report, due December 14, 2026 for companies that received an extension. That's a different service — our Minnesota PFAS report prep, with a free plain-English check first to see whether it even applies to you.
Questions groups ask
How long does reinstatement take?
Our package is typically ready for your review within two weeks of receiving your complete questionnaire. The IRS's own clock is theirs: the IRS reports deciding 80% of Form 1023-EZ applications within about 22 days, while the full Form 1023 takes considerably longer — months is normal. We'll tell you which form you're on and what that realistically means before you pay anything.
We were revoked more than 15 months ago. Is it too late?
No. Reinstatement is still available — the application is the same, but retroactive restoration is no longer the simple path: you'll generally need to show reasonable cause for the missed years, and your status may restart from the application date instead of reaching back. That's exactly the case where a careful reasonable-cause statement matters most.
Can we just file the missing years and be done?
Unfortunately not. Once the third year is missed, the cancellation is automatic by law, and filing late returns alone doesn't undo it. The only road back is a new application for exemption — Form 1023-EZ or Form 1023 — with the IRS user fee. (If you're only one or two years behind, though, file right away: you're not revoked yet, and the yearly form is free.)
Do we have to use the full Form 1023?
Only if you don't qualify for the short one. Form 1023-EZ is for smaller groups — broadly, gross receipts of $50,000 or less in each of the past three years and expected for the next three, and total assets of $250,000 or less, with a few type exclusions. The eligibility check runs the IRS's own worksheet against your numbers, because filing the wrong form wastes the fee.
What does the IRS fee cover, and who do we pay it to?
The user fee goes to the IRS through Pay.gov when the application is submitted — $275 for Form 1023-EZ, $600 for Form 1023. It's the government's charge for processing, it's separate from our $445, and we pass it through at cost with no markup.
What if our treasurer just changed and nobody knows anything?
That's the most common way groups arrive here, and it's fine. The questionnaire starts from what you can find — an EIN, a bank statement, a name — and we reconstruct the filing history from IRS records. A change of volunteers is also the single most common cause of the missed filings, which is precisely what the reasonable-cause statement explains, and exactly what the Filing Guard exists to prevent next time.
Get your status back
Email inunghwang@gmail.com — subject NONPROFIT + your organization's name. Tell us when you found out and what kind of group you are. You'll get a reply with the short questionnaire and a firm start date — and if your group turns out not to be revoked at all, we'll tell you that for free.