How a group loses its status without anyone deciding anything
Almost every tax-exempt organization has to check in with the IRS once a year. The smallest groups — gross receipts normally $50,000 or less — file Form 990-N, a free online "e-Postcard" with eight basic questions. Bigger groups file Form 990-EZ or the full Form 990. The due date is the 15th day of the 5th month after your group's year ends: May 15 for a calendar-year group, November 15 for a July-to-June school-year group.
Miss that filing three years in a row and federal law cancels the exemption automatically — that's Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j). There is no hearing and no appeal, because there is no decision: the revocation takes effect on the due date of the third missed filing whether anyone at the IRS notices or not. The IRS does mail a letter to the group's last known address, which — for a volunteer group whose treasurer moved on two years ago — is often an address nobody checks. Tens of thousands of groups are revoked this way every year, and a great many of them are still operating, still collecting donations, and have no idea.
While revoked, the group is treated like an ordinary taxable organization, donations to it are not tax-deductible for donors, and grantmakers and giving platforms that verify status will pass it by.
The free check, step by step
The IRS publishes the list — it's called the Auto-Revocation List — inside its Tax Exempt Organization Search tool on irs.gov. You search it yourself, in your browser; there's nothing to install and nothing to pay. (To be clear about what this page is: it's a guide to doing the free check on the IRS's own site. We don't run a lookup tool here, and you should be wary of any site that asks you to pay for this search — the IRS gives it away.)
1. Go to the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search
On irs.gov, open the "Search for tax exempt organizations" page. Have your group's legal name and, if you know it, its EIN (the 9-digit tax ID) ready — searching by EIN is the surest way to find the right group among similar names.
2. Search the Pub. 78 data first
Choose the Pub. 78 dataset and search your group. This is the IRS's list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions. If your group appears here with current standing, donors can deduct gifts to it — a good sign.
3. Then search the Auto-Revocation List
Switch the dataset to the Automatic Revocation of Exemption List and search again. If your group appears, the listing shows the effective date of revocation — that's the due date of the third missed filing — and the date the listing was posted. Note both dates: together they start the clock on your best reinstatement options.
4. If it's on the revocation list, check whether it's already been fixed
Appearing on the Auto-Revocation List doesn't always mean a group is still revoked — some groups have already reapplied and been reinstated. Check the Pub. 78 data and the determination letters in the same search tool: a reinstatement shows as a determination letter with an effective date on or after the revocation date.
What your result means
Not on the revocation list, and in Pub. 78
Your status is intact. Keep it that way: know your yearly due date, and make sure the filing doesn't depend on one volunteer's memory. If you'd rather never think about it again, our Filing Guard calendars and files the yearly 990-N for $129/yr and watches your status for you.
On the revocation list, revocation date within the last 15 months
You're in the best window there is. Groups that apply within 15 months of revocation — counted from the later of the revocation letter date or the date the listing posted — can qualify for retroactive reinstatement: status restored as if it never lapsed. Small groups that were eligible to file the 990-N or 990-EZ get a streamlined version of this path. Don't let this window close while you deliberate; it's the one deadline in this whole mess that can't be extended.
On the revocation list, more than 15 months ago
Still fixable — just a harder road. Reinstatement runs through the same application (Form 1023-EZ or Form 1023, with the IRS fee of $275 or $600), but retroactive restoration generally requires showing reasonable cause for the missed years, and your status may restart from the application date instead of reaching back. A gap in deductible status matters most if you took donations during it — that's a question worth a careful answer, and the application is where you make it.
Can't find your group anywhere
Try the EIN search — names get filed with abbreviations, "The," and old spellings. If the group truly doesn't appear in any dataset, it may never have been recognized as exempt in the first place (common for groups that formed, got an EIN, and assumed the rest was automatic). That's a different fix — a first-time application — and it's worth confirming before you take another deductible dollar.
Two things the check won't tell you
State trouble is separate. This page covers federal tax-exempt status. Your state can separately dissolve your corporation for a missed state annual report, and most states separately require registration to ask for donations. A clean IRS result doesn't clear those — and a revoked group often has state filings lapsed too. And a church caveat: churches and their integrated auxiliaries generally aren't required to file the 990 series at all, so a church that never filed and isn't on any list is usually exactly as it should be. Church-related groups with their own EIN — a school, a preschool, a separately run ministry — are a different story and should check like anyone else.
If the answer is bad, here's the fix
The road back is a new application for exemption — Form 1023-EZ if your group is small enough to qualify, the full Form 1023 if it isn't — plus the IRS user fee, plus, on the harder paths, a written statement explaining why the filings were missed. It's paperwork, not litigation, but it's paperwork with a right form, a right order, and a clock.
That's the package we build. For $445 flat — published right on the page, no quote call — we run the eligibility check, assemble the complete application, draft your reasonable-cause statement from your facts, and hand you submission-ready files with a filing checklist. Then, if you want it, the $129/yr Filing Guard makes sure your group never lands on this list again.
See the reinstatement service
Or go straight there: email inunghwang@gmail.com with the subject NONPROFIT + your organization's name.
This page is general information about how IRS auto-revocation works, not legal or tax advice for your specific group. Rules summarized from IRS guidance (including Revenue Procedure 2014-11); fees and procedures can change — the IRS site is the final word.