To report a 501(c)(3) for violations, file IRS Form 13909, the Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint (Referral) Form, by email or mail, and send a parallel complaint to your state Attorney General or charity regulator if the misconduct also involves state charitable laws. The process is straightforward. A specific, documented report gives investigators the best chance of acting on it.
Conduct the IRS Will Act On
A 501(c)(3) must operate exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, or other exempt purposes, and none of its earnings can benefit private insiders.1Internal Revenue Service. Exemption Requirements – 501(c)(3) Organizations Form 13909 lists the categories investigators look at:
- Private inurement, meaning directors, officers, or insiders using the organization’s income or assets for personal gain, including excessive compensation, personal use of nonprofit-owned vehicles, or below-market loans to board members.
- Political campaign activity. Endorsing or opposing a candidate, contributing to campaigns, or publishing biased voter guides is absolutely prohibited, and even indirect support counts.2Internal Revenue Service. Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention by Section 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organizations
- Excessive lobbying, meaning spending a substantial part of the organization’s resources trying to influence legislation.1Internal Revenue Service. Exemption Requirements – 501(c)(3) Organizations
- Operating a commercial business unrelated to the exempt purpose.
- Deceptive fundraising that misleads donors about how contributions will be used.
- Failure to file required federal tax returns, or refusing to provide a copy of Form 990 when a member of the public asks for it.
- Using income or assets to fund illegal or terrorist activities.
Nonpartisan voter education is not a violation. Unbiased voter registration drives and public forums that give equal time to all candidates are permitted, even though they touch on elections.2Internal Revenue Service. Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention by Section 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organizations The line is bias: materials that favor or oppose a candidate cross into prohibited activity.
What to Gather Before You File
Start with the organization’s identity. At a minimum, you need its legal name and physical address. Include its Employer Identification Number (EIN), the nine-digit number that identifies it for tax purposes, if you can find it.3Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 990 Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax The EIN appears on the organization’s Form 990, which most nonprofits file annually and which you can pull from the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool.
Then describe the conduct. What did the organization do, when, and who was involved? Attach whatever documentation you have: financial records, internal emails, screenshots of social media posts endorsing candidates, photographs, or anything else that shows the misconduct. You do not need ironclad proof. Investigators treat your report as a starting point, but specific, documented claims carry far more weight than vague suspicions.
How to Submit Form 13909
Form 13909 is available as a PDF on the IRS website or as a fillable digital form.4Internal Revenue Service. IRS Complaint Process – Tax-Exempt Organizations The IRS also accepts a plain letter describing the complaint in place of the form. Send your complaint and any supporting documents through one of two channels:
- Email to eoclass@irs.gov.
- Mail to TEGE Referrals Group, 1100 Commerce Street, MC 4910 DAL, Dallas, TX 75242.5Internal Revenue Service. Form 13909 Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint (Referral)
Pick one method. Sending the same complaint through both channels creates duplicate records and can slow processing.
Filing Anonymously
You can file anonymously by entering “Anonymous” in place of your name on Form 13909.5Internal Revenue Service. Form 13909 Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint (Referral) The tradeoff is that the IRS cannot acknowledge your complaint or follow up if it needs clarification, which can weaken the referral. If you give your name, the form also includes a checkbox to flag that you are worried about your identity being disclosed.
One caution regardless of how you file: knowingly submitting false information on a federal form can bring criminal penalties of up to five years in prison under 18 U.S.C. § 1001.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally Good-faith reports based on what you reasonably believe to be true are fine. Fabricated allegations are a federal crime.
Retaliation Protections for Employees
If you work for the organization you are reporting, federal law protects you. Under 26 U.S.C. § 7623(d), added by the Taxpayer First Act, your employer cannot fire, demote, suspend, threaten, or otherwise retaliate against you for reporting tax violations to the IRS, the Treasury Inspector General, Congress, or other authorized parties.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 7623 – Expenses of Detection of Underpayments and Fraud, Etc. If retaliation happens, you can file a complaint with the Department of Labor. If the Department of Labor does not issue a final decision within 180 days, you can sue in federal district court.
What Happens After You File
The IRS sends an acknowledgment letter to the address you provide, confirming it received your complaint.8Internal Revenue Service. Form 13909 That letter is the last thing you will hear. Federal law makes tax return information confidential under 26 U.S.C. § 6103, so the IRS cannot tell you whether it opened an investigation, what it found, or what action it took.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6103 – Confidentiality and Disclosure of Returns and Return Information
Behind the scenes, the IRS decides whether to audit or take other enforcement action. Its tools include excise taxes on insiders who received an excessive benefit and, for serious or ongoing violations, revocation of tax-exempt status.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 4958 – Taxes on Excess Benefit Transactions An organization that fails to file its annual Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N for three consecutive years loses exempt status automatically, with no investigation and no appeal.11Internal Revenue Service. Automatic Revocation of Exemption
Old conduct can still be actionable. The IRS generally has three years from a return’s filing date to assess additional taxes, but that window stretches to six years if the organization underreported income by more than 25 percent, and there is no limit in fraud cases.12Internal Revenue Service. Time IRS Can Assess Tax
When to Also Report to a State Regulator
State oversight runs independently of the IRS and focuses on consumer protection and charitable trust laws. In most states, the Attorney General or a dedicated charity regulator investigates nonprofits that misuse charitable assets or engage in deceptive fundraising. The National Association of State Charity Officials keeps a directory of state regulators at nasconet.org.
State regulators often look at conduct the IRS does not prioritize: deceptive solicitations that mislead donors, failure to register as a charity before soliciting donations, and breaches of fiduciary duty by board members, such as steering contracts to a family-owned business without disclosure or letting donated funds be spent on unauthorized purposes. Penalties vary by state and can include fines for failing to register or file annual reports, removal of officers, orders to return misspent funds, and in severe cases dissolution of the nonprofit.
If the conduct violates both federal tax rules and state charitable laws, file with both the IRS and your state regulator. Neither agency will automatically share your report with the other.
A Separate Track: Whistleblower Awards
If you have detailed, original information about significant tax noncompliance, not just a general complaint, you may qualify for a financial award. This is a separate process from Form 13909 and uses IRS Form 211, the Application for Award for Original Information. Form 211 can be filed digitally through the IRS website or by mail.13Internal Revenue Service. Whistleblower Office Announces New Digital Form 211
For a mandatory award, the taxes, penalties, and interest in dispute must exceed $2 million. If the target is an individual rather than an organization, that person’s gross income must also exceed $200,000 in at least one of the tax years at issue.14Internal Revenue Service. Submit a Whistleblower Claim for Award When those thresholds are met, the award runs 15 to 30 percent of the proceeds collected, depending on how much you contributed to the investigation. If the IRS action rested mainly on publicly available information rather than your own contribution, the maximum drops to 10 percent.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 7623 – Expenses of Detection of Underpayments and Fraud, Etc.
Claims below $2 million do not qualify for the mandatory program but can still be considered for a discretionary award, with the amount set at the IRS’s discretion and no guaranteed minimum.14Internal Revenue Service. Submit a Whistleblower Claim for Award Expect a long timeline. The IRS must investigate, assess, and collect before any award is calculated, which often takes several years. Information submitted with a whistleblower claim is provided under penalty of perjury, so accuracy matters even more than on Form 13909.