IRS Review of Non-Profit Status

Internal Revenue Service
District Director
P. O. BOX 2508
Cincinati, OH 45201

Date: Dec 27 2001

Troubled Times, Inc. a Delaware Corporation
PO Box 10
North Freedom, WI 53951

Department of the Treasury
Employer Identification Number: 94-3280008
Our Letter Dated: May 1998
Advance Ruling Period Begins: July 22, 1997
Advance Ruling Period Ends: December 31, 2001
Addendum Applies: No

Dear Applicant:

Our letter of the above date stated that we had determined your organization is exempt under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code as an organization described in section 501(c)(3) and that you would be treated as a publically supported organization and not as a private foundation during your advance ruling period. This was based on our determination that you could reasonably be expected to be an organization described in sections 170(b)(a)(A)(vi) and 509(a)(1) or in section 509(a)(2).

We also stated that at the end of your advance ruling period you would have to establish that you were in fact an organization described in one of the above sections.

Our records indicate that your advance ruling period begins and ends on the dates shown above. Your exempt status as an organization described in section 501(c)(3) is still in effect. However, to establish that you are a publically supported organization described in sections 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) and 509(a)(1) or in section 509(a)(2), please complete the attached Form 8734, Support Schedule for Advance Ruling Period, for each of the tax years in your advance ruling period.

The information requested in this letter is required to support your claim to be other than a private foundation. It is needed in addition to any required Form 990 or other annual return. Please send it to us within 90 days from the end of your advance rulling period.

If we do not receive this information, we will presume you are a private foundation and you will be treated as a private foundation as of the first day of your first tax year for purposes of sections 507(d) and 4940 of the Code. In addition, if you do not provide the information by the time requested, it will be considered by the internal Revenue Service that you have not taken all reasonable steps to secure the determination you requested. Under section 7428(b)(2) of the Code, not taking all reasonable steps, in a timely manner, to secure the determination may be considered as a failure to exhuast administrative remedies available to you within the Service, and may preclude the issueance of a declaratory judgment in the matter under judicial proceedings.

Thank you for your cooperation.