Tax News Archive:

Political Organization Notice of Section 527 Status

Form 8871 is filed by political organizations to notify the IRS that they should be treated as a section 527 organization for tax purposes. This form is the result of the new law passed by congress and signed into effect by President Clinton on July 1st. Under this new law any political organization that was formed prior to June 30th, 2000 and wants to be treated as a section 527 organization then it must file form 8871 within one month by July 31st, 2000. Any political organization that forms after June 30th, 2000 must file within 24 hours.

This applies to all political organizations that want to apply for section 527 statuses. Following are some exceptions for political organizations that don’t have to file form 8871:

• An organization that reasonably expects its annual gross receipts to always be less than $25,000
• A political committee required to report under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431 et seq.)
• A tax-exempt organization described in section 501(c) that is treated as having political organization taxable income under section 527(f)(1).

(source: IRS website, www.irs.gov)