IRS Removes Tax-Exempt Status Of 275,000 Groups

From the Associated Press, as reported on NPR:

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that 275,000 organizations have lost their tax-exempt status because they failed to file required annual reports for three straight years.

The tax agency said it believed that the vast majority of those groups are no longer in existence, but it said it was setting up procedures to help those companies that sought reinstatement...IRS data shows that there were more than 1.8 million tax-exempt organizations in 2010. About two-thirds of those are religious and charitable organizations, but also included are labor and agriculture organizations, business leagues, social and recreation clubs, war veterans' groups and others.

The agency said that last year it published a list of at-risk groups and gave smaller organizations an additional five months to file required reports. It said about 50,000 organizations filed during this period.

Read more here. This story is going to unfold slowly as the impact is assessed at state and local levels. I am curious to hear more about these organizations and why, aside from cessation of business (and a failure to report it), they have neglected mandatory paperwork for three years.