(Photo: Greg Locke preaching about praise and thankfulness.)

Last week The Roys Report reported that pastor Greg Locke’s church doesn’t show up in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. So let’s explore this exemption in the tax code.

To become a non-profit in America, most organizations are required to file the Form 1023, Application for Recognition of Tax-Exemption. However, churches, synagogues and mosques–organizations that operate as places of worship–are exempt.

Following the Jim Bakker scandal, in 1987 Congress held a hearing to discuss oversight of religious organizations.

O. Donaldson Chapoton, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy, told the oversight committee, “Exempting churches from reporting requirements and placing restrictions on IRS audit activities reduce the ability of the IRS to administer and enforce the law.”

Congressman Charles Rangel later commented, “From what I understand from the testimony of this panel, any person or organization could declare themselves a church, enjoy tax exemption, and you would have no way of knowing.”

Chapoton responded, “That is correct.”

Continue reading “Tax Code Loophole: Churches Not Required to Apply for Tax Exemption”

(Photo: Pastor Paula White prays with Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Secretary of Health and Human Services during National Faith Advisory Board Leadership Summit.)

Washington, D.C. operates like a magnet drawing people to the allure of political power.

This week American pastors met with White House staff during meetings coordinated by the National Faith Advisory Board (NFAB) as part of the organization’s Leadership Summit.

Also, this week pastors attended the Israel Allies Foundation Gala Awards Dinner to honor President Donald Trump.

Both events were coordinated with the White House Faith Office.

Attendees such as Jentezen Franklin, pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia, Greg Locke, pastor of Global Vision Bible Church, in Lebanon, Tennessee, and Mark Driscoll, pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, shared photos taken during the events.

By mixing religion and politics, religious leaders run the risk of moral compromise and being associated with causes and politicians opposed by a large number of voters. As a result, voters with differing political views are less likely to attend such churches.

Continue reading “Religious Non-Profit Operates in Financial Secrecy While Connecting Preachers and Politicians for Networking in Washington, D.C.”

 

(Photo: Pixabay/shameersrk)

Technologies and cultural trends developed over the last 100 years have transformed church attendance and ministry giving, allowing religious organizations to collect donations from a global audience as Bible translations redefined tithing.

These changes, which are visible in televangelist broadcasts and numerous church live streams, have resulted in donors frequently supporting religious leaders that are strangers.

Until the 1970s, megachurches were quite rare. Most church members attended a neighborhood congregation. Church attendees and clergy knew each other.

Unfortunately, the private lives of some pastors are in conflict with the Bible they proclaim to preach. For this reason, donors should carefully check out religious organizations and their leaders.

Continue reading “The Evolution of Church Giving”

(Photo: Pixabay)

Update: After publication of this article, the Treasury Department announced it will only require foreign companies to disclose ownership in America and that owners of American companies will not be prosecuted for non-disclosure of beneficial ownership information.

After facing court challenges the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act, has gone into effect, requiring many owners of corporations, limited liability companies and sole proprietors to report beneficial ownership information (BOI) to the federal government.

But loopholes in the act have inadvertently made churches the ideal venue for international money laundering.

In prior years, law enforcement would complain about the difficulty of identifying the owners of companies because their names didn’t appear on corporate records.

For some companies, the only contact is a registered agent who doesn’t personally know their client. On other occasions the names of managers of limited liability companies (LLCs) and dummy directors of corporations appear on company registration documents rather than the owner.

This lack of corporate transparency protects terrorists, international money laundering, tax evasion, and drug smuggling.

Lack of Beneficial Ownership Hides Aircraft

When reporters Mark Smith and Tanya Eiserer of Dallas-based ABC affiliate WFAA discovered in 2019 that more than 1,000 aircraft were registered to two P.O. boxes in the small Texas town of Onalaska – which has no airport – they began to ask questions. It was, after all, more aircraft than are registered in either Seattle, San Antonio or New York City.

WFAA reported, “In 2008, a plane crashed into a home in Caracas, Venezuela, killing seven people. The pilot was a twice-convicted drug smuggler. The plane was registered in the United States to Aircraft Guaranty Corp. The company never identified the real owner.”

“There’s more: In 2013, a helicopter also registered to Aircraft Guaranty crashed into a golf course in Mexico.  ‘I was never able to find out the actual person who was responsible for that helicopter accident,’ said attorney Ladd Sanger, who represented the families of three of the five people killed in the crash.”

Continue reading “Televangelists and Pastor Entrepreneurs, Are You in Compliance? March 21st Deadline to Report Company Ownership to Feds”

The Religion Business update: In November we reported on filmmaker Nathan Apffel’s arrest at televangelist Ed Young Jr.’s Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, for trespassing. Apffel was standing on church property with a poster asking the question, “Ed, what’s your housing allowance today?” On February 25^th, Apffel pled guilty and received a 90-day probation. The charge will be expunged from his record if Apffel doesn’t visit the church during the probation period.

Apffel’s seven-part documentary The Religion Business is expected to premiere online at Easter or soon after.

2025 NRB Convention: Televangelists, religious broadcasters and Christian journalists gathered at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention held in Grapevine, Texas during the last days of February.

NRB would have been the ideal institution to call for massive reform in religious broadcasting but instead it has given a platform for corrupt religious leaders.

Continue reading “In the News…”