Bush Push May Cost Churches Tax Breaks

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election campaign is trying to recruit supporters from 1,600 religious congregations in Pennsylvania — a political push that critics said Wednesday could cost churches their tax breaks.


An e-mail from the campaign's Pennsylvania office, obtained by The Associated Press, urges churchgoers to help organize "Friendly Congregations" where supporters can meet regularly to sign up voters and spread the Bush word.


"I'd like to ask if you would like to serve as a coordinator in your place of worship," says the e-mail, adorned with the Bush-Cheney logo, from Luke Bernstein, who runs the state campaign's coalitions operation and is a former staffer to Sen. Rick Santorum, the president's Pennsylvania chairman.


"We plan to undertake activities such as distributing general information/updates or voter registration materials in a place accessible to the congregation," the e-mail says.


The Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) prohibits political campaign activity, for or against any candidate, from taking place at all organizations that receive tax exempt status under a section of the federal tax code — including most churches and religious groups. Violators could lose their tax breaks and face excise taxes.

~snip~
more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=703&e=4&u=/ap/20040603/ap_on_el_pr/bush_churches

[freetobegay]

1. Bush will just give it right back to them.

[Zhade]

2. Blatantly unConstitutional.

So, will Dems in Congress stand up to this?

You tell me.

[Don_G]

3. I Hope They're "Friendly Fundie" Churches

Those need to have their tax-exempt status yanked.

[Miss Authoritiva]

4. Any comparative tax specialists out there?

Just curious: Do other countries exempt churches/religions from taxes, and if they do, are there similar prohibitions against political activities?

[Trillo]

5. I want to see these faith-based executive orders ended. n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. I don't buy it.

The Internal Revenue Service prohibits political campaign activity, for or against any candidate, from taking place at all organizations that receive tax exempt status under a section of the federal tax code — including most churches and religious groups. Violators could lose their tax breaks and face excise taxes.

PTL/700... happens every 4 years. Where's the prohibiting? :shrug:

[davsand]

8. It depends on how they are incorporated.

Without knowing more about the type of designation they hold, i can't address the PTL Club or 700 Club. I wish I could--IF they are listed as 501 (C)3 then they are expressly prohibited from doing political activity.

IRS code is most specific that churches are NOT to be doing any work on political campaigns. They are less specific about lobbying, however. The IRS says, "(about the church)...it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate at all in campaign activity for or against political candidates."

However(!) there are a lot of loopholes in the law (surprise!) If you want to learn more about the issue as the IRS sees it, I'd suggest reading here:

http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=120703,00.html

This is the intro to the article--and you can see from just this small segment it is really murky in terms of legal definition of what churches can and can't do:

"(Adapted from IRS Publication 1828, Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations - February 2004)

Political activities and legislative activities are two different things and are subject to two different sets of rules. The rules depend on the type of tax-exempt organization, the type of activity (political or legislative) at issue, the scope or amount of the activity conducted, and the consequences of exceeding the given set of limitations..."

HOWEVER, before you get horribly discouraged, do read this section:

"Political Campaign Activity

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violation of this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise tax..."

I think that Email they describe in the article was a huge cock-up on the part of the campaign staffer that sent it out. The churches have wiggle room--they can claim they had no intention of participating in the campaign organizing, however the campaign is now exposed as having urged CHURCHES to break the laws.

How's THAT for Republican family values!!!


Laura

[salin]

9. Actually - the Christian Coalition (under Robertson)

ran into this problem - as the use of churches to distribute 'voter guides' that were very partisan were deemed to be political. They were sued and almost lost their 501c3 status - they resolved it by splitting the organization into two organizations and the one that engages in actual political activities is now NOT a tax exempt organization.

Sounds like what the bush-cheney folks are trying to do is even more in direct contradiction of the laws that the CC orignially was (by making it the Churches doing the action instead of the CC as the action) Thus it would be the churches that would violate tax exempt status.

So the big question remains....

Are they so arrogant they don't care about the laws and think they can always get around them?

Or is this calculate to try to get political momentum to CHANGE the laws via legislation (by first making a public pitch that they KNOW would get smacked down - then building public support claiming that the smack down was in essence discrimination against religious groups...) In the second scenario they really don't think they will get away with this now .... but are doing it to set the stage for permanently being able to do this with a very significant voting block (working for future consolidation of GOP political power.)

My money is on the second scenario - but it either scenario would fit these folks m.o.

[drkedjr]

7. Non-Profit Stuff ...

I've I spent my entire human services career ( 1970 - 2004) in administration of public and Federal contracts.
The hoops that we need to jump through to show that nothing political is intended, would really amaze the
population. Since Bush, it's a game to see who can screw who, nothing is unfair and the CHURCH is really,
really out-of-control!