Revised guidance for organizations applying for a determination letter to recognize qualification for §501(c)(4) status has been issued by the IRS in Rev. Proc. 2018-10.. The new guidance requires the request be made by filing Form 1024-A, Application for Recognition of Exemption Under Section 501(c)(4). This new form is to be used instead of Form 1024 for such organizations to optionally file for such a determination letter.

The organizations, while they must notify the IRS of their existence and their assertion that they qualify for §501(c)(4) status within 60 days of formation under other procedures, are not required to go through the determination letter process. Nevertheless, such an organization may wish to obtain the certainty that comes with the letter and therefore will file this form, though the application will also require submission of a user fee for the IRS to process the request.

This procedure modifies Rev. Proc. 2018-5 to contain the following information regarding submitting this form:

(7) Form 1024-A application. An organization seeking a determination letter from the Service recognizing exemption under § 501(c)(4) must submit a completed Form 1024-A, Application for Recognition of Exemption Under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, along with Form 8718. In the case of an organization that provides credit counseling services and seeks recognition of exemption under § 501(c)(4), see § 501(q).

Section 501(c)(4) organizations may choose to seek a determination letter recognizing exemption under § 501(c)(4) by filing Form 1024-A, but are not required to do so except in certain cases (see, for example, § 6033(j)(2) regarding failures to file annual information returns or annual electronic notifications required under § 6033(a) or (i)).

The ruling also modifies Rev. Proc. 2018-5 by giving the following information on who is authorized to sign the request:

(3) Individual or representative authorized to sign Form 1024-A. In the case of a request for a determination letter made by filing Form 1024-A, an officer, a director, a trustee who is authorized to sign, or a representative authorized by a power of attorney (see section 4.05 of this revenue procedure), must sign the application.

Finally, the new guidance modifies Rev. Proc. 2018-5 regarding who should sign the form as follows:

(1) Penalty of perjury statement requirements for requests for determination letters made on Form 1023, 1023-EZ, 1024, 1024-A, or 8940. The signature of an individual described in section 4.04(1), (2), or (3) of this revenue procedure meets the penalty of perjury statement signature requirements for requests on Form 1023, 1023-EZ, 1024, 1024-A, or 8940, as applicable.…

This declaration must be signed and dated by the taxpayer, not the taxpayer’s representative authorized by a power of attorney. The signature of an individual described in section 4.04(1) is the signature of the taxpayer for purposes of the penalty of perjury statement. The signature of an authorized representative described in section 4.04(2), (3), or (4) will not meet the penalty of perjury statement requirements (except as otherwise provided in Appendix B). See the instructions to the relevant form for additional detail. Neither a stamped signature nor a faxed signature is permitted.

At the time the IRS issued this Rev. Proc. Form 1024-A and its related instructions still existed only in draft form. Presumably the IRS will be releasing the final version of this form very shortly, since the new procedure claims an effective date of January 16, 2018, eight days before it was issued.

For the moment the drafts are available via the following links (these links may “break” once the IRS issues the final forms):