4 ms·

Do their US congregants not have the same level of representation that all citizens living in a state have?

frumper 5y ago
U.S. Churches tax exempt status is typically as a 501c3 non-profit and that strictly forbids direct political activity. Removing the 501c3 designation would mean that they no longer have a reason to refrain from direct political activity. A Church does not specifically need to be a 501c3 organization to be tax exempt, but it makes things quite a bit easier for several reasons so most choose to go this route.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > U.S. Churches tax exempt status is typically as a 501c3 non-profit and that strictly forbids direct political activity. No, it doesn't. It prohibits direct or indirect campaign activity (a prohibition which, in the case of Churches, is widely flouted and for which enforcement is near no existent), but allows a variety of notionally non-campaign political activity (which, also, is a fictitious distinction, and essentially all activity undertaken of this type is direct activity targeted at advancing particular candidates or parties electoral prospects, and tends to be particularly focussed around particular elections.) > Removing the 501c3 designation would mean that they no longer have a reason to refrain from direct political activity. Removing the 501(c)3 designation would mean that not only was the church so affected no longer tax exempt but donations to it would no longer be tax deductible, so it would need substantially more donated dollars, each of which would cost donors more (because of the lack of deductibility), just to be where it was status quo ante. So they'd have less money to spend on the political activity they already freely engage in. > A Church does not specifically need to be a 501c3 organization to be tax exempt It does for donations to be tax deductible; also, “churches” are an enumerated subtype of 501(c)3, but not of other tax exempt categories, so while being a church ipso facto qualified you for 501(c)3 status (and for exceptions to some rules applicable to other 501(c)3 orgs) if you are willing to abide by the subset of rules actually enforced on churches in that classification, it doesn't automatically qualify you for any other tax exempt status. Of course, all this is irrelevant to the article which is about Canada, which has not yet become a region of the United States subject to the US tax code.

U.S. Churches tax exempt status is typically as a 501c3 non-profit and that strictly forbids direct political activity. Removing the 501c3 designation would mean that they no longer have a reason to refrain from direct political activity. A Church does not specifically need to be a 501c3 organization to be tax exempt, but it makes things quite a bit easier for several reasons so most choose to go this route.

dragonwriter 5y ago
> U.S. Churches tax exempt status is typically as a 501c3 non-profit and that strictly forbids direct political activity. No, it doesn't. It prohibits direct or indirect campaign activity (a prohibition which, in the case of Churches, is widely flouted and for which enforcement is near no existent), but allows a variety of notionally non-campaign political activity (which, also, is a fictitious distinction, and essentially all activity undertaken of this type is direct activity targeted at advancing particular candidates or parties electoral prospects, and tends to be particularly focussed around particular elections.) > Removing the 501c3 designation would mean that they no longer have a reason to refrain from direct political activity. Removing the 501(c)3 designation would mean that not only was the church so affected no longer tax exempt but donations to it would no longer be tax deductible, so it would need substantially more donated dollars, each of which would cost donors more (because of the lack of deductibility), just to be where it was status quo ante. So they'd have less money to spend on the political activity they already freely engage in. > A Church does not specifically need to be a 501c3 organization to be tax exempt It does for donations to be tax deductible; also, “churches” are an enumerated subtype of 501(c)3, but not of other tax exempt categories, so while being a church ipso facto qualified you for 501(c)3 status (and for exceptions to some rules applicable to other 501(c)3 orgs) if you are willing to abide by the subset of rules actually enforced on churches in that classification, it doesn't automatically qualify you for any other tax exempt status. Of course, all this is irrelevant to the article which is about Canada, which has not yet become a region of the United States subject to the US tax code.