Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — About 3,000 nonprofit organizations in Arkansas are at risk of losing their tax-exempt status because they failed to file federal tax returns for 2007, 2008 and 2009, the IRS says.

The 3,009 Arkansas organizations are among 325,000 small nonprofit organizations across the country that failed to file returns for the past three years, the IRS said in a news release. The organizations can preserve their tax-exempt status if they file the delinquent returns by Oct. 15 under a one-time amnesty program.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006, which took effect in 2007, requires all tax-exempt organizations other than churches or church-related organizations to file annual tax returns. An organization that fails to file a return for three consecutive years automatically loses its federal tax-exempt status.

A list of the affected organizations and details about the amnesty program are available on the IRS’ website.