X.Org Foundation Loses 501(c)3 Non-Profit Status 208
An anonymous reader writes "The X.Org Foundation, which drives the X.Org Server projects, Mesa, and Wayland open-source programs, had its tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS. It turns out the X.Org Foundation had put in quite a lot of work to become a non-profit organization, with guidance from the Software Freedom Law Center. They got in trouble after failing to routinely file their taxes on time. There's also been a host of other X.Org accounting errors in recent years. There was also the recent news of the IRS going after open-source projects, too."
They're not the only ones (Score:2, Interesting)
Tax-exempt status revoked for hundreds of area organizations [sj-r.com] (If you get a paywall you can get past by saving the site source to your hard drive and opening that up.
Re:No one to blame but themselves (Score:3, Interesting)
This is a scam from the IRS.
They are doing this to many, many non-profit organizations. Quite a few non-profit organizations are being hit by this and the IRS is taking advantage of the general disorganization and small size of a lot of non-profit groups to pocket themselves a tidy sum.
The scam goes like this. New policies enacted by the IRS now require non-profits to fill out a card verifying their non-profit status every three years. Now this is simple and easy to do, but its also simple and easy to forget to do. Its even easier to forget when your organization turns over its treasurer every year or two. Also if your organization is part of a larger national organization, it doesn't matter, the IRS is targeting the smallest unit of every non-profit organization. Membership in larger state and national groups of your non-profit do not cover your smaller group.
The IRS's solution if you forget to register is to allow you to re-register at a later date and pay a FINE.
So that's how the shakedown goes. The IRS is making good money with this enforcement racket that they've created.