Pastors who endorse political candidates shouldn't lose tax-exempt status, IRS says in filing
Headline from WDIO Duluth
The IRS says pastors endorsing political candidates during services should not risk losing their tax-exempt status. This challenges the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 rule barring tax-exempt groups, including churches, from political endorsements.
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The IRS says pastors endorsing political candidates during services should not risk losing their tax-exempt status. This challenges the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 rule barring tax-exempt groups, including churches, from political endorsements.
Churches and other houses of worship registered as tax-exempt nonprofits can endorse political candidates to their congregations, the IRS said on Monday. The decision, first reported in The New York Times, was communicated in a court filing intended to settle a lawsuit filed by two Texas churches an…
The move effectively calls for a carve out for religious organizations from the rarely used IRS rule called the Johnson Amendment, put in place in 1954.
Two churches and a religious group sued the IRS in 2024, saying their First Amendment rights were violated by the ban on endorsing candidates in elections.
In a court filing, the tax agency said a decades-old ban on campaigning by tax-exempt groups should not apply to houses of worship speaking to their own members.
(RNS) — The IRS hopes to settle a lawsuit brought by a pair of Texas churches and a group of religious broadcasters over rules that bar houses of worship and other nonprofits from getting involved in political campaigns.
