How to get the exit code when running `if ! command; then`?

When I want to take action on a failure I do:

if ! commmand; 
then
    echo $?
fi

But the exit code is always 0.

If you need to exit status later, you might consider saving it in a variable:

command
status=$?
if (( status != 0 )); then
    echo $status
fi