A new report from the Internal Revenue Service shows assets and revenues of nonprofit groups filing returns have grown by more than 300 percent during the last 20 years. In recognition of the growth of the exempt sector, the IRS also has announced a new, toll-free telephone number for tax questions from nonprofit groups.

After adjusting for inflation, nonprofit tax-exempt groups that filed information returns reported total assets of $1.9 trillion and revenues of $899 billion in 1995, the last year for which complete information is available.

The figures are reported in the latest issue of the IRS's Statistics of Income Bulletin.

This is a significant increase from 1975 levels and far outpaces the 74 percent growth rate of the U.S. economy as a whole during the same period, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The revenues of 501(c)(3) groups accounted for 12.4 percent of the U.S. economy in 1995. That figure is more than double the level of 1975 revenues, the Journal reports.

Nonprofit groups represent "an important and growing force" in the economy, according to the IRS report.

The figures do not show the assets and revenues of groups that didn't have to file returns, either because they are religious organizations or because they had annual gross receipts of less than $25,000, the report states.

To help the more than 1.2 million nonprofit groups in the U.S., the IRS has opened up a toll-free number at (877) 829-5500 to answer questions from nonprofit groups.