Bob Jones University Regains Tax-Exempt Status

Last month Bob Jones University announced a major reorganization that transferred its university-related activities and assets to an existing, tax-exempt organization and so effectively allowed the University to reclaim its tax-exempt status. As detailed in a USA Today report about the reorganization, with the University's decision last decade to drop its interracial dating ban and apologize for the school's past racial discrimination cleared the legal path to reclaim that status. It was not until a few years ago, however, that University leadership decided to do so, and it took a couple years to implement that decision because of the complicated reorganization route the University chose to take. One advantage of taking this route, however, was it avoided any need to seek IRS approval since it took advantage of an existing tax-exempt organization (that had primarily operated an elementary school up until now).

Lloyd Mayer