The IRS just declared 275,000 charities as no longer qualifying for tax-exempt status. Some of the “defrocked” charities could be ones your church has been supporting for missions or other outreach endeavors.
Contributions made by donors to these charities, formerly recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS, are not deductible as charitable deductions. So, can a church still support a charity that is now a taxable organization? Leaving that question for you to discuss with your tax counsel, at a minimum, it would cause some pause for many churches.
Be prepared for someone in your church to ask if any charities the church is supporting lost their tax-exempt status. It seems like it would be excellent if you could say a resounding “No.”
These are days for churches to be squeaky clean in their financial dealings—abiding by the law…and then some!
Click here for more information.
To see if a ministry is an ECFA member:
http://www.ecfa.org/MemberSearch.aspx
To see if a non-member is listed as a 501(c)(3):
http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/
For more information, see:
http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=239696,00.html
