How can failed public charities be identified on the BMF?
If organizations had public charity status at one point but have private foundation status at a later date. Public charities that fail to file at the end of the five year advance ruling period are automatically classified as private foundations even though Ron suspects that most of them are dead. Thus, one indicator of failed public charity status is to see if an organization is marked as a private foundation in the BMF but has failed to file a 990-PF. (Tax period would be more than a year or two old.) – Phone conversation between Ron Williams (Exempt Organizations, IRS), Linda Lampkin & Tom Pollak The attached table shows the distribution of failed public charities that do file IRS Form 990-PFs. Note that the number of failed public charities/private foundations in the IRS Business Master File will be higher since, as Ron Williams pointed out, these organizations are probably defunct and do not file their returns.
