By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com
A $500,000 grant made by Lee County’s Board of Commissioners on November 14 to an organization affiliated with a local church will be delayed for an unknown length of time because the group – the Life Springs Action Team, Inc. – has not yet been approved by the IRS as a tax-exempt entity.
Lee County Manager Dr. John Crumpton told The Rant after Monday afternoon’s meeting of the commissioners that “it could be a matter of a few weeks or a few months. Nothing can happen until that is approved. But once it does happen, we will come back to the commissioners and seek their approval of a contractual agreement.”
Commissioners had been set to vote on a contract for the grant money at Monday’s meeting. That vote did not take place.
An IRS designation as an approved 501(c)(3) entity allows an organization to be exempt from payment of corporate taxes. But more importantly, it qualifies the group as a charity that makes it eligible to apply for, and receive, grants and to declare that contributions it receives are tax deductible by the donor, with some restrictions.
The IRS typically approves applications for 501(c)(3) status within a four to six month period. But most agencies of government are still recovering from backlogs of work that piled up during the COVID-19 pandemic and are still awaiting processing because staffing remains an issue in many departments.
The award made by the commissioners is a part of the…
