From the Ashtabula Community Players to the local chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America, scores of Ashtabula County nonprofit organizations are in danger of losing their favored status with the Internal Revenue Service.

The loss of tax-exempt status could mean

taxes will become due on revenues earned by the organizations, and donors to the organizations would not be able to claim their gifts as tax deductions.

Earlier this week, the IRS announced that it was providing a special one-time relief program for the smaller nonprofit organizations that have failed to file Form 990 during the past three years. Despite sending out millions of letters to the nonprofit organizations the IRS considers active, hundreds of thousands of groups missed the May 17 deadline for filing the reports. The IRS has extended the deadline for reporting to Oct. 15. Reporting is fairly simple for those with under $25,000 in revenues: the required Form 990-N is online.

In the past, if a nonprofit organization had less than $25,000 in revenues, it was not required to file IRS Form 990. That changed with the 2006 Pension Protection Act, which included a provision requiring all nonprofit organizations to file annual reports.

Churches and church-related groups remain exempt, however.

Nonprofit organizations that don’t file for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status. 2010 thus became the test year for the new law, whose reporting requirements began with tax year 2007.

To help nonprofit organizations determine their status, the IRS has created a public database, which lists the names and last known addresses for hundreds of thousands of noncompliant organizations as of June 30. The Ohio list is available online (http://www.irs.gov/ charities/article/0,,id=225889,00.html).

Nationwide, there are about 300,000 nonprofit organizations at risk of losing their status, according to the Urban Institute.

The 411-page list of Ohio nonprofit organizations that have failed to file includes the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ local, which covers Ashtabula City municipal workers. President Lee Mendrala said he can’t recall having received a letter or other notification from the IRS but he plans to look into it. He had not realized the $25,000 reporting floor had changed.

“We’re usually pretty good on that; we try to stay on top of things, with these people, especially,” Mendrala said.

The local has between $10,000 to $12,000 squirreled away from union dues, the majority of which goes to the national organization. He said the local money would be used for legal counsel, donations and possibly worker assistance during a strike.

“It (has) probably taken us 20 years or better to accumulate that much,” he said.

The Saybrook Firefighters Association is also on the list. The group, which has about $5,000 annually in revenues, takes donations from the community and uses the funds to support the firefighters with firehouse amenities. Dave Whitaker, who has worked with the association for years, was surprised to learn of the new requirement.

“I had not heard that,” said Whitaker, who planned to bring it to the president’s attention.

Kingsville attorney Daniel Madden, who has helped incorporate nonprofit organizations, said he tells the organizations’ leaders that it is their responsibility to check with the IRS periodically and make sure they are meeting reporting requirements. He says most nonprofit groups that he has helped incorporate have been small community organizations whose revenues come from membership fees that total much less than $25,000.

“(The IRS) is putting too much of a burden on these small organizations, which are run by volunteers,” Madden said.

The loss of status would require filing new paperwork with the IRS and paying a user fee of up to $850. Further, the nonprofit organization could become liable for taxes on revenues earned before the renewal of the exemption.

The IRS plans to publish a list of charities and nonprofit organizations in early 2011, that no longer have tax-exempt status. The information would help donors make giving decisions, as gifts to noncompliant groups no longer would be tax-deductible.