Suit By Anti-Catholic Group Challenges IRS Revocation of Its Non-Profit Status

The Dr. R. C. Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology, Inc. (SIST) has received some public notice in recent months as the attorney for its affiliates in bankruptcy proceedings was disciplined by the Minnesota Supreme Court for making repeated anti-Catholic slurs aimed at a federal bankruptcy judge and several bankruptcy trustees. (See prior posting.) Last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center profiled SIST, calling the Wisconsin-based organization "a mysterious, Catholic-bashing group" that plans to use profits from an amusement park to build a school in Wisconsin and fund another school in India. In Internal Revenue Bulletin 2013-49, (Dec. 2, 2013), the Internal Revenue Service recently announced that SIST has filed a declaratory judgment action challenging the revocation of its non-profit status under the Internal Revenue Code. The filing of the action allows individual contributors to continue to make tax-deductible contributions in limited amounts while the litigation is pending.