NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
A3
Chamber of commerce reinstates nonprofit status after four years
Chamber now
working to reinstate
tax-exempt status
through IRS
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Members of the community and Grant County Chamber of Commerce during a John Day City Council and Grant County Court study
session Oct. 14.
gible to file Form 990-EZ,
which was the last form the
chamber filed, or 990-N for
the three years that caused
their revocation may have
their tax-exempt status retro-
actively reinstated to the date
of revocation. To qualify, the
chamber cannot have had their
tax-exempt status automati-
cally revoked previously.
The chamber would have
to submit Form 1023, Form
1023-EZ, Form 1024 or Form
1024-A with the appropri-
ate user fee no later than 15
months after the chamber
appeared on the revocation list
on the IRS website.
“In addition, the IRS will
not impose the Section 6652©
penalty for failure to file
annual returns for the three
consecutive taxable years that
caused the organization to be
revoked if the organization is
retroactively reinstated under
this procedure,” according to
the IRS website.
Tammy Bremner, the
chamber office manager, said
at the conclusion of the study
session Oct. 14 that the cham-
ber was going to meet Oct. 15
and come up with an action
plan. The chamber discussed
how to deal with the non-
profit status during an execu-
tive session.
Bremner said she was
unaware the chamber non-
profit status had been revoked
and did not receive any
notices. Bremner said the IRS
sent a notice to the chamber,
according to their website
regarding the tax-exempt sta-
tus, but she did not receive it.
Bremner said more work at
the chamber and events in her
personal life led to the mishap.
“I don’t want to make
excuses, but (I) was definitely
busy,” she said. “We had the
eclipse, and then some things
happened in my personal life,
and it has been very busy
since then. It’s gotten much
busier here, and I just let it
get through the crack. This
board has become so much
more active than the past, and
I focused on other things and
let it slip through the cracks.”
Chamber President Sher-
rie Rinninger said they talked
to their accountant, Solutions
CPAs, and developed a plan
to move forward and signed a
power of attorney.
Rininger said she was told
the problem can be resolved.
“We don’t want to under-
play it because we feel it’s very
serious, but we were happy to
hear that it’s not the end of the
world,” Bremner said.
Bremner said the chamber
has all the financial documents
from the missing years to pro-
vide to the IRS if needed.
“Anyone can look at our
records at any time...” Rin-
ninger said. “There’s nothing
they came to the meeting,
the chamber said they did not
have them.
Green said the city was
going to request copies of
the chamber’s tax statements
from the IRS to see what had
been reported in their 990s,
but the city then learned the
chamber lost its nonprofit sta-
tus and tax-exempt status.
He said he is not mak-
ing accusations and that peo-
ple volunteer for the board,
but what the city would like
to understand is the return
on investment with the TRT
and how those dollars are
accounted for.
John Day City Councilor
Shannon Adair said the city
wants to make sure the TRT
money coming in is being
spent effectively to bring tour-
ism to the county. She added
that she does not know if it
would have gotten to this
level if the city could have
seen where the funds were
spent when they requested the
records.
Bremner said during the
study session, when Green
requested information, the
chamber provided it and that
she was not aware the non-
profit status had been revoked.
She said, when the cham-
funny going on. This was an
oversight.”
Now that all the cham-
ber members are aware of
the problem, Rininger and
Bremner doubt this will hap-
pen again.
“We will continue to work
hard to promote tourism
and do the best we can do,”
Rininger said. “This is a hic-
cup, and we are going to move
on.”
Concerns about the cham-
ber and transparency were
brought to the Grant County
Court by the John Day City
Council during their work
session. Green said a con-
cern from the council was a
lack of standard procedure for
managing the transient room
tax funds, so in May, the city
requested the chamber pro-
vide the city with audited
financial statements of the
TRT.
“There’s
tension
in
areas where there probably
shouldn’t be, and one of those
areas is how the funds have
been collected and expended,”
Green said.
He said the chamber ini-
tially stated they would pro-
vide the financial documents
and audits during a work ses-
sion on May 21, but when
—Tammy Bremner, Grant
County Chamber of Commerce
manager
ber was asked for audited fig-
ures, they told the city they did
not have an audit. The agree-
ment with the county to accept
the TRT funds, Ordinance
2012-04, states the chamber
will make its records available
to the county and the county’s
auditing process, but Bremner
said the county has not asked
for the records.
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The Grant County Cham-
ber of Commerce regained its
nonprofit status last week after
losing it four years ago.
During a joint John Day
City Council and Grant
County Court work session
Oct. 14, John Day City Man-
ager Nick Green told the court
about the chamber’s lack of
nonprofit status, and the cham-
ber members at the meeting
said they were unaware they
lost the status.
The IRS website also has
the chamber listed in the
Auto-Revocation list, a list of
organizations whose federal
tax-exempt status were auto-
matically revoked for not fil-
ing a Form 990-series return
or notice for three consecutive
years. The IRS uses Form 990
as the primary tool for gather-
ing information about tax-ex-
empt organizations such as
nonprofits.
The chamber’s tax-exempt
status was revoked on Nov.
15, 2019, according to the IRS
webpage.
The chamber responded
quickly after the joint work
session.
“The Grant County Cham-
ber reinstated their nonprofit
status yesterday (Oct. 15),”
said Secretary of State’s Leg-
islative and Communications
Director Andrea Chiapella. “It
is not uncommon for an entity
to go inactive, particularly if
there is organizational change,
outside events or other exter-
nal forces that take time and
attention. Regardless of the
reason, the chamber is active.”
Even though the chamber
has been reinstated as a non-
profit in Oregon, Chiapella
said what they do at the state
level doesn’t impact the IRS
process.
The IRS website states that
organizations that were eli-
“I DON’T WANT
TO MAKE
EXCUSES, BUT (I)
WAS DEFINITELY
BUSY. WE HAD
THE ECLIPSE,
AND THEN
SOME THINGS
HAPPENED IN
MY PERSONAL
LIFE, AND IT HAS
BEEN VERY BUSY
SINCE THEN. IT’S
GOTTEN MUCH
BUSIER HERE,
AND I JUST LET
IT GET THROUGH
THE CRACK.
THIS BOARD
HAS BECOME
SO MUCH MORE
ACTIVE THAN
THE PAST, AND
I FOCUSED ON
OTHER THINGS
AND LET IT SLIP
THROUGH THE
CRACKS.”