ZOA Regains Tax-Exempt Status

Image by naomi zeveloff
The Internal Revenue Service reinstated the tax-exempt status of the Zionist Organization of America.
“The work of the ZOA has never been altered or diminished one iota during this period,” ZOA President Morton Klein said in a statement Monday announcing the May 15 IRS decision. “Our campus work; our Title VI efforts; our Capitol Hill work; our writings, lectures, TV and radio appearances have continued as always.”
The IRS a year ago rescinded the tax-exempt status because ZOA had not filed a tax return for three consecutive years.
Klein told JTA last year that the failures to file were due to confusion over the status of a school in Israel run under ZOA auspices, and because of erroneous advice from a tax accountant.
Donations to ZOA have remained deductible in the meantime, as they were directed through a third party donor-advised fund.
In the same announcement, ZOA said its annual dinner, to be held in November, will honor former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, now a talk show personality, as well as benefactor James Tisch.
ZOA canceled its annual dinner in 2012.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
