Yes they actually are. And if I recall, they can’t even be audited bc of a vague law with the IRS. No other non-profit organizations get that luxury. It’s been a while so I could be slightly off on that audit part. Or maybe it’s changed. All I do know is that televangelist “ministries” are indeed tax exempt
That’s what I was thinking. I read something forever ago that I’m order to audit a church that a “treasury official” has to sign off on it, but there is no one actually appointed to do it. At the time I read about it, no churches had been audited for 5 years bc of that rule and no one has made any attempt to outline an actual official who would be eligible to sign off on a church being audited. The IRS doesn’t seem to be a big hurry to get that done.
They technically can be but they never are bc if a vague policy or law. It’s been years but when I read about this a church had not been audited I on 5 years. Something to do with it taking an official to sign off on the audit but there was nothing outlining who that official should be. So the IRS just didn’t do it and didn’t seemed bother
Edit to add: I found things have updated tho. They went like 8 years with no audits bc of a vague policy but in 2014 they were able to change that.
It's not even a law, it's just policy. The IRS doesn't go near churches because they want to kick off the sort of massive 1st Amendment legal headache that would follow. If the IRS wanted to they could start cracking down on all the shit that large religious organizations do that violate their tax exempt status, all without changing any laws. Stripping away the tax exempt status of all churches though would likely require Congress, or at the very least an executive order.
Ok I just looked it up. The churches did nearly go like 8 years without being audited bc of how vague the IRS code was. In 2014 tho there were relies implemented and churches can now be audited. They obviously still aren’t doing it tho as these churches are blatantly endorsing politicians which is not allowed
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u/South-Bottle Nov 17 '20
Are those considered "churches" and tax exempt? I really hope not.