IRS Tax-Exempt Revocation Check

Bulk-check a list of EINs against the IRS Automatic Revocation of Exemption List and IRS Publication 78, and get back a clear per-organization verdict with the revocation, posting and reinstatement dates.

Built for the check a grantmaker has to make before money moves: has this organization lost its tax-exempt status, and are contributions to it still deductible?

What it does

Give it EINs. For each one it returns:

Field	Meaning
status	eligible, revoked, reinstated, not_listed, or invalid_ein
autoRevoked	appears on the IRS Automatic Revocation of Exemption List
currentlyRevoked	revoked with no reinstatement recorded
revocationDate	date the exemption was automatically revoked
revocationPostingDate	date the IRS posted the revocation
reinstatementDate	date exemption was reinstated, if it was
pub78Listed	currently listed in IRS Publication 78
contributionsDeductible	true / false / null from the Pub 78 codes
deductibilityCodes	e.g. ["PC"], ["PF"], ["EO"]
advisory	plain-English guidance on what the result does and does not prove
revocationDetail, pub78Detail	the full underlying records

Why exemption gets revoked

Under IRC §6033(j), an organization that fails to file a required annual return or notice (Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF or the 990-N e-Postcard) for three consecutive years loses its tax-exempt status automatically, by operation of law. No IRS action or notice is required. Contributions made after the revocation posting date are not deductible.

For a private foundation, a grant to a revoked organization is a non-qualifying distribution and can trigger expenditure-responsibility obligations — which is why this check is normally run over the whole grantee portfolio, not one EIN at a time.

It will not over-claim

Absence from Publication 78 is not evidence of revocation. Churches, integrated auxiliaries, governmental units and most subordinates covered by a group ruling are tax-exempt without ever appearing in Pub 78. A tool that reported those as "not exempt" would block legitimate grants.

So the two lists are reported as the separate facts they are. An organization on neither list comes back as not_listed, with an advisory saying exactly that — never as revoked.

It fails loudly rather than quietly clearing you

The dangerous failure mode for a compliance tool is not crashing — it is returning "nothing found" because the source moved. If the IRS changes the column layout of either file, every EIN would silently come back clean.

This Actor asserts a minimum row count and a minimum parse rate on each file before it reports anything. If either check fails, the run fails with an explanatory message. You will never get a clean bill of health this Actor could not stand behind.

Input

{
  "records": [
    { "recordId": "GRANT-2026-014", "ein": "13-1837418" },
    { "recordId": "GRANT-2026-015", "ein": "530196605" }
  ],
  "checkPub78": true
}

A bare list of EIN strings also works:

{ "records": ["13-1837418", "53-0196605"] }

• records — EINs, with or without the hyphen. Objects may carry a recordId (or id), which is echoed back so you can join the output to your own grants system. Any extra fields are returned untouched under input.
• checkPub78 (default true) — set to false to check only the revocation list and skip the Publication 78 download. Faster, but you lose the deductibility status codes.

Output

One dataset item per input record. Example:

{
  "recordId": "GRANT-2026-014",
  "ein": "00-0003154",
  "organizationName": "OAKLEAF FOREST TENANT MANAGEMENT",
  "status": "revoked",
  "autoRevoked": true,
  "currentlyRevoked": true,
  "revocationDate": "2017-11-15",
  "revocationPostingDate": "2018-03-12",
  "reinstatementDate": null,
  "pub78Listed": false,
  "contributionsDeductible": null,
  "deductibilityCodes": [],
  "advisory": "Exemption automatically revoked for failing to file a return or notice for three consecutive years, with no reinstatement recorded. ...",
  "verifyUrl": "https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/"
}

Publication 78 deductibility codes

Code	Meaning
PC	Public charity
POF	Private operating foundation
PF	Private foundation
GROUP	Subordinate in a group ruling; contributions deductible
LODGE	Domestic fraternal society under 170(c)(4)
FORGN	Foreign organization; deductible only under a tax treaty
SO / SOUNK	Supporting organization
EO	Exempt, but contributions are not deductible
UNKWN	Deductibility undetermined

Data sources

Both are US Government works in the public domain, published by the IRS expressly for bulk download. No API key, no rate limit, no CAPTCHA.

• Automatic Revocation of Exemption List — https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/data-download-revocation.zip
• Publication 78 cumulative data — https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/data-download-pub78.zip

The IRS refreshes these monthly. Each output item carries checkedAt and sourceRowCounts so you can evidence exactly what you checked and when.

Not legal or tax advice

This Actor reports what the IRS files say. Final determinations belong to you and your counsel. For a single organization, confirm against the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search.