If your church's tax-exempt status were revoked...
In a worst-case scenario, how much would your church’s property taxes be if the laws changed and your tax-exempt status were revoked?
I just called the Lyon County assessor on ours, and it would be in the neighborhood of $5000/year (we’re outside the township limits).
I’m not sure exactly, but this is something that I need to ask the Elders/Deacons. I think we’re all going to need to start making contingency plans for if/when 501(c)(3) status is no longer tax-exempt.
I don’t think it’s something coming soon, but I could totally see massive revisions to the code coming in the future.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
With the changing attitudes in the government and society towards homosexuality, it has occurred to me that one of the things that might happen sooner rather than later could be removal of tax-exempt status for churches that “discriminate” against gay marriage. There are already some movements toward this at state levels, and though they don’t appear to have sufficient “legs” at this stage, observing how quickly changes in the way our country handles these issues seems to me to raise the likelihood that this is something we might face in our lifetimes, short of the return of Christ for His own.
Greg Linscott
Marshall, MN
There are a lot of factors in play here, but the long and short of my opinion is this - governments need cash to operate. NPOs like Harvard and Yale are sitting on billion (yes, B) dollar endowments that are not taxable. The changing attitude toward gay marriage is yet another reason.
BJU already had their 501(c)(3) status revoked in 1980 in their case. We’re already seeing it with the political favoritism that is ongoing at the IRS. Chief Justice John Marshall put it succinctly:
That the power to tax involves the power to destroy; that the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create….
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
I think I tend to the view that tax exemption for churches is a benefit and not a right. There was a church I knew that lost the tax exemption on the pastor’s home because it was not the same land as the church. They solved the problem by buying all the properties (several homes and apartment buildings) between the church building and the parsonage. Property taxes are used to fund fire and police departments. Who are going to call if there’s a fire? The deacons?
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
In both our present and past ministries the local government changed how things were billed. One was fire-use to be it was tacted onto the property tax, they changed it to a fee and was applied to water/sewer bill. In the times I seen our local government change like this the rationale has been, “if we don’t change it to a fee the tax exempt properties get off getting a service for free”.
As we left our last ministry the community was considering adding to their sewer bill a “fee” based on blacktop surface and/or roof top sq footage.
So what I’m seeing is not a taking away the exemption from property/sales tax, but changing things to fees to catch the tax exempt properties. Thus it almost becomes a frog in the kettle situation, things are getting changed and it appears “fair’ but before you know it tax exempt entities are going to be paying the equivalent of property taxes in fees.
And depending on whether you live in a red or blue state the “homosexual issue” may change things faster. If you also happen to live in a very progressive state ie., Cali/IL/Northeastern state they’re running out of money..so they’ve got to find it somewhere and they will…
We are in the process of changing some wording in our constitution so the only weddings that may be conducted in our church or by the pastor(s) can only be between one man and one woman. This may buy a little time, but I’m sure that eventually even this will be declared discriminatory.
In both our present and past ministries the local government changed how things were billed. One was fire [inspections?] - use[d] to be it was tacked onto the property tax, they changed it to a fee and was applied to water/sewer bill. In the times I seen our local government change like this the rationale has been, “if we don’t change it to a fee the tax exempt properties get off getting a service for free”.
Here in NY State, that’s been going on too, and every year brings us a new ‘fee’ to pay for the government to do it’s job.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
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