EIN Checker / Guide

This nonprofit was revoked, then reinstated. How should you read that?

As a past administrative lapse that has been cured, not as a current problem. The organization is in good standing today. It stays on the IRS auto-revocation list permanently — that list is a historical record, not a current-status list — so tools that read it naively will report a reinstated organization as revoked.

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Why the record looks alarming

The IRS auto-revocation file lists every organization ever automatically revoked, with a separate reinstatement date column. Current status has to be derived by comparing those dates. Treat revocation as event history, never as a yes/no field.

In the current data, 161,185 organizations were revoked at some point and have since been reinstated. Reporting those as revoked would be wrong 161,185 times.

What a lapse actually signals

Most reinstatements follow three years of missed filings at organizations with volunteer or part-time administration. The signal is about back-office capacity, not integrity. A single lapse a decade ago says little; a lapse two years ago at an organization you are about to fund is worth one question about who handles their filings now.

What to ask

"What changed in how you handle annual filings since the reinstatement?" A good answer names a person or a service. A vague answer tells you the risk is still live.

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