It what has become a regular occurrence, the Internal Revenue Service recently issued another warning about fake charities. The announcement does not mention any specific high-profile disaster likely to attract substantial donations or other event that triggered this particular warning, although there are certainly enough such events recently to choose among. This is in contrast with last year’s warning, which stated it was timed to coincide with international Charity Fraud Awareness Week (which started October 17th in 2022 but will not start until November 27th this year), the fall 2021 warning, which stated it coincided with Giving Tuesday (November 28th this year), and an earlier 2021 warning, which was part of the IRS’ annual Dirty Dozen campaign.
This year’s warning repeats common sense precautions, including using the IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) function to verify that the requesting organization is in fact a charity for federal income tax purposes and being wary of common scam techniques such as being pressured to make an immediate payment.
Lloyd Mayer
