The Berwick Housing Authority Resident Council, the St. Mary Industrial Group, and the Morgan City Volunteer Fire Department are among more than 30 eastern St. Mary Parish groups that have lost their tax-exempt status.

They are among those from Morgan City, Berwick, Patterson and Amelia on a list the Internal Revenue Service published earlier this month.

Other local organizations included are the Tri-City Helping Hearts Foundation, the Louisiana Garden Club Federation — which includes the Morgan City Garden Club — American Legion Auxiliary Atchafalaya Post 96, and the St. Mary Bar Association.

When reached for comment, Housing Authority Director Clarence Robinson said the resident council forgot to submit the paper-work, while SMIG and Tri-City Helping Hearts officials both said they were not aware of the change. Morgan City Fire Chief Morris Price could not be reached for comment about the MCVFD.

The 2006 law requires most tax-exempt organizations to file an annual information return or notice with the IRS. For small organizations, the law imposed a filing requirement for the first time in 2007.

The law automatically revokes the tax-exempt status of any organization that does not file required returns or notices for three consecutive years.

The revocation dates of all local businesses were May 15, 2010, except for the Morgan City Garden Club’s status, which was revoked Aug. 15, 2010, but did not become official until the Internal Revenue Service posted them in an extensive list earlier this month.

Statewide, 4,225 are included, while nationally, approximately, 275,000 are listed because they did not file legally required annual reports for 2007-09 in accordance with the Pension Protection Act in 2006. The list is available at www.IRS.gov.

However, IRS officials said they believe many of these organizations are defunct.

All contacted by The Daily Review said they would be re-applying for the non-profit status.

For the Berwick Housing Authority, Robinson emphasized that the BHA was in good standing, just not the Resident Council, which is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

IRS officials have said they have made an extensive effort for several years to inform organizations of the changes in the law through multiple outreach and education avenues, including mailing more than one million notices to organizations that had not filed.

Additionally, last year the IRS published a list of at-risk groups and gave smaller organizations an additional five months to file required notices and come into compliance, IRS officials said. About 50,000 organizations filed during this extension period, they said.

Overall, IRS officials said they think the majority of small tax-exempt organizations are now in compliance with the 2006 law.

“During the past several years, the IRS has gone the extra mile to help make tax-exempt groups aware of their legal filing requirement and allow them additional time to file,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said. “Still, we realize there may be some legitimate organizations, especially very small ones, that were unaware of their new filing requirement. We are taking additional steps for these groups to maintain their tax-exempt status without jeopardizing their operations or harming their donors.”

Both SMIG President R.E. “Bob” Miller and Tri-City Helping Hearts President Herman Hartman said they never received paperwork in the mail.

“We’ve never gotten any-thing in our post office box,” Miller said. “We’ve never gotten notice at all. That’s our government at work.”

The IRS issued guidance on how organizations can apply for reinstatement of their tax-exempt status, including retroactive reinstatement.

Additionally, the IRS announced transition relief for certain small tax-exempt organizations — those with annual gross receipts of $50,000 or less for 2010 — subject to the new “postcard” filing under the PPA.

The relief allows eligible small organizations to regain their tax-exempt status retroactive to the date of revocation and pay a reduced application fee of $100, rather than the typical $400 or $850 fee.

IRS officials said this listing should have little, if any, impact on donors who previously made deductible contributions to auto-revoked organizations, because donations made prior to the publication of an organization’s name on the list remain tax-deductible. Going forward, however, organizations that are on the auto-revocation list that do not receive reinstatement are no longer eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions, and any income they receive may be taxable, the IRS said.

More information on the reinstatement process, including retroactive rein-statement, can be found on www.IRS.gov.

Other organizations with eastern St. Mary Parish addresses included on the list were:

—Morgan City Mud Slingers Inc.

—Morgan City Yacht Club.

—Brothers for Christ (Morgan City).

—Bayou L’Ourse Athletic Association.

—Fame of Morgan City Inc.

—Morgan City Bassmasters.

—St. Mary Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Morgan City).

—Mother & Unborn Baby Care Inc. (Morgan City).

—Malachi Ministries Inc. (Morgan City).

—St. Mary Crime Stoppers (Morgan City).

—Friends of the Morgan City Public Library.

—Louisiana Sports & Activity (Morgan City).

—Prison Outreach of Louisiana.

—Morgan City Making a Difference Inc.

—National Association of Letter Carriers of Morgan City and Berwick.

—UH Hunting Club (Berwick).

—Knights of Columbus 7084 in Berwick.

—St. Mary Amateur Radio Group (Berwick).

—Country Club Estates Civic Center (Berwick).

—Order of Eastern Star Prince Hall (Patterson).

—BHG Production (Patterson).

—Jane Lockett Hartman Outreach (Patterson).

—Homes for Hope Inc. (Patterson).

—Clifford Childcare & Development (Patterson).

—Atchafalaya Breeze Teasers (Patterson).

—Boys & Girls Club of Bayou Teche (Patterson).

—Grace and Mercy Rescue Mission (Amelia).