ZOA regains tax-exempt status

Last year the IRS rescinded the status because the group had not filed a tax return for three consecutive years

21 May 2013, 8:02 am

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WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Internal Revenue Service reinstated the tax-exempt status of the Zionist Organization of America.

“The work of the ZOA has never been altered or diminished one iota during this period,” ZOA President Morton Klein said in a statement Monday announcing the May 15 IRS decision. “Our campus work; our Title VI efforts; our Capitol Hill work; our writings, lectures, TV and radio appearances have continued as always.”

The IRS a year ago rescinded the tax-exempt status because ZOA had not filed a tax return for three consecutive years.

Klein told JTA last year that the failures to file were due to confusion over the status of a school in Israel run under ZOA auspices, and because of erroneous advice from a tax accountant.

Donations to ZOA have remained deductible in the meantime, as they were directed through a third party donor-advised fund.

In the same announcement, ZOA said its annual dinner, to be held in November, will honor former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, now a talk show personality, as well as benefactor James Tisch.

ZOA canceled its annual dinner in 2012.