The Perlowski Files

Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club Name Change

The following article was posted by Jim on The Chip Board on March 12th, 2011

It appears the major concern involving a club name change is "if we do something the IRS may look at our 501 (c) (3)”. My reply to that is...so what? Are we, as a club, doing something that we shouldn’t? Has our mission changed? Isn’t our primary mission, goal, and purpose education?

Let me put the discussion in its proper perspective. Our section 501(c) (3) status can be challenged by the IRS anytime for anything. They do not need a name change to investigate our organization. What then should we do? Put our head in the sand and not make any changes that may better our club? As a club member I am more concerned with what we as an organization is doing to further our education requirement. That should ALWAYS be our primary concern.

Changing the name of our organization DOES NOT change our mission or purpose which is...education. Nothing we do with merely a name change will jeopardize our status. Where the problem comes in is reality. Either Eric or I do not want to devote our time or energy to defending a challenge from the IRS. After all I earn my living from defending entities and individuals before the IRS. Obviously, I need to get paid in order to live. I can’t speak for Eric but I’m sure his circumstances may be similar. So we cross our fingers and subscribe to the philosophy “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it”, that my friend is the unadulterated truth.

A name change could constitute reorganization under IRS Code section 368 (a) (1) (F). In the past the reorganization code sections were written for the benefit of the taxpayer. Today things have changed and some of the code sections involving reorganizations benefit the government by way of tax. However, in my opinion reorganization under (F) would not affect our organization in any way.

When Eric fought for our status I’m sure it about killed him both physically and financially. I know when I fought alongside Nancy Clark for the Southern Nevada Organization’s tax free status all we could get, unless we wanted to go to court, was a 501(c) (7). It was not fun nor do I care to do it again. For those who do not know the primary difference between a 3 and a 7 is a 3 can take deductible charitable contributions. In other words, the donor can take a deduction on his/her tax return. A donor to a 7 cannot. There are other minor differences but what I just wrote is, as far as I’m concerned, the ONLY difference.

Personally, I would support a name change. However, consideration must be given to those who have worked to develop and grow our organization. I’m sure many of these individuals do not want to change our name. I can live with either decision but let’s make the decision based upon facts not what someone thinks could or would happen.