When an organization misses its annual return three years running, exemption is revoked automatically — no notice of intent, no hearing, no discretion. The first most boards hear of it is a donation page failing, or a grantmaker running a status check.
From there, two paths exist. Which one you can use depends on a date, and the date is not the one most organizations have written down.
Two dates, and the later one governs
Revenue Procedure 2014-11 sets the window at 15 months after the later of:
- the date on the IRS revocation letter — notice CP-120A; or
- the date the organization appeared on the Auto-Revocation List published on the IRS website.
Almost everyone reads “15 months from revocation” and reaches for the letter, because the letter is the thing that arrived. But the posting frequently comes after the letter, and when it does, the posting is the date that governs — which means the window closes later than a letter-based count suggests.
That cuts both ways, and both are worth knowing. An organization that has written itself off as too late may still be inside the window. An organization that never received the letter — because it went to a former treasurer, a closed PO box, or an address three moves ago — may have a clock that has been running the whole time from a posting nobody saw.
The letter is the date you have. The posting is the date on the public record. Only one of them is retrievable if the paperwork is gone, and it is not the letter.
Streamlined or full
Inside the window, the streamlined retroactive process is open to organizations that:
- were eligible to file Form 990-EZ or Form 990-N for each of the three years missed — this is about eligibility, not about what was actually filed; and
- have not previously had exemption automatically revoked.
Meet both and you can be reinstated retroactively to the revocation date without showing reasonable cause. That is the whole value of the streamlined route: no narrative, no argument about why the filings were missed.
Organizations required to file the full Form 990 or 990-PF in any of those years, or previously auto-revoked, take the other path. Retroactive reinstatement is still available on the same 15-month timing, but it requires a reasonable-cause showing — a written account of why the returns were not filed and what has changed.
One detail that saves work: applying within 15 months also lets an otherwise non-streamlined organization show reasonable cause for only one of the three years rather than all three. The window is not merely a deadline — it changes how much you have to argue.
Working out where you stand
Both dates are on the public record, and the Auto-Revocation List is the authoritative one. You do not need the letter to establish your own position — which matters, because the organizations most affected by this are usually the ones whose records changed hands.
GoodStanding pulls the record from the public IRS registries, establishes which clock applies to you, and prepares every filing that cures the revocation with a dated checklist showing what gets signed and when. The free diagnostic on the home page shows what happened and when the window closes before anything is bought.
The Streamlined Cure Pack is $349 and the Full Reinstatement Pack is $699, both one-time. GoodStanding prepares; the organization signs and files. We are not a law or CPA firm and do not represent anyone before the IRS. Contact us reaches a person.
If you are still deciding who should do the work, the companion guide sets out the four routes back from a revocation and what each one costs — including doing it yourself.
Verified against Revenue Procedure 2014-11 and current IRS guidance on 25 July 2026. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.