LK Education Bulletin

This question arose in our consulting with members of an unincorporated non-profit entity that had previously filed with and obtained 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. Their issue being that IRS would require them to re-file for exempt status if their organizational structure changed to incorporated.

We discussed this issue with a staff member of the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office who indicated the following:

§ The act requires that these school support organizations be non-profit entities

§ The Secretary of State for Tennessee only recognizes corporations and limited liability companies (LLC) as non-profit entities

§ Legislative intent of the statute was for those support organizations subject to its domain to be corporations

While this advice is non-binding it does suggest that for this organization to be in compliance with the SSOFAA statute it will need to file and become a corporate entity as recognized by the Secretary of State and to re-file for exempt status with the IRS.