So I did a little looking into the laws regarding this and found some very worrying things, one being that the "organization" hasn't filed their 990
(yearly tax document) for over 5 years, which is why they were revoked. I looked at their prior 990's and there is a lot of problems with them as
well, like not declaring where their largest expenses are being spent, just the amount - so it could be going back to a board member, employee or
something, it just shows 25-50% of their revenue being spend on "blank field" - which is supposed to list who (person or company) receives this
payment.
They are also listing huge amounts of "debt repayment" in the form of interest, late fees, penalties, etc, to an unknown financial institution of debt
holder - basically service fees on a loan - even though they list no loans or debt, except for a very small 200-500 listing about 10 years ago. So it
basically shows money is being spent on an unknown loan and doesn't list who is receiving these large payments ($50K+).
Then there is the problem that people are donating large amounts of goods and taking a tax deduction because they are still using their 501.c.3 EIN,
so people are commuting tax fraud by taking this deduction based on the fraud this organization is perpetuating to their customers. So if someone
donates $10,000 of goods and they take that as a deduction on their taxes, that is actually tax fraud on the customer's part and they will get
penalized for this if audited.
I read reviews of this company on facebook and google reviews and almost all of them were 5 star or 1 star, and all the 1 star were basically the
same. These people who gave one star were treated horribly and were snapped at when they asked questions about donations and deductions, which makes
sense. Many people sought to go elsewhere. They also listed that they were "yelled at" (yes that was said 4-5 times) when they looked at equipment at
the front of the store, sitting out on tables, because it is the drop offs, but it isn't labeled anywhere as such, so people think it is like
everything else in the store, for sale.
There was also talk about very expensive items donated that never showed up for sale in the store (it doesn't go anywhere else). Some people donated
to get the deduction and told other people it would be for sale, because they were interested in it and it would come with a warranty from the store.
It never showed up for sale and the people who wanted to buy it were told that no such items were ever donated (yet there are reciepts of such
donations). So that is worrying.
There are about 10 other issues like those above, many of them even worse, but b/c they are more technical as per 501.c.3 and tax law, it is tough to
explain. I really would like to work with this business but I don't know if I should ask the "owner" (a 501.c.3 doesn't really have an owner, but
that is a different story....) but I get the feeling I'll loose any access to find out what is really going on. I'd rather help him if it is possible
to get things back to non-revoked status, but IDK if that is even possible or a good idea after reading some of these reviews and hearing some things
from employees.
I'm shocked that this is only an IRS issue and doesn't have anything to do with local law enforcement. I would have thought operating a fraudulent
business would fall under some kind of legal statute where police could act, but from what I have found, it seems that only the IRS would be involved
- maybe the IRS then beings charges or something, IDK.
With April 15 coming up quickly, that will be the 5th or 6th year that all the donors will be commiting tax fraud by claiming deductions for items
donated to this organization. They have also made it impossible to find any board members or directors, which isn't allowed as per 501.c.3 rules.
So what I have found is that for anyone working with a non profit, you really need to do some background checking on them, especially if you are going
to be giving them money or donations you claim on your tax filings.
Here is a link for anyone to search to see the current status of a charity
apps.irs.gov...
Here is a site that will allow you to view old 990's to see how their money is spent - if they are paying a CEO or President $1 million a year in
salary, or paying 90% of their income to employees, or something like that. you can see how much is actually being spent on the cause.
projects.propublica.org...