What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

Concerned that the IRS had erred in allowing the council and similar groups to be designated churches or associations of churches, Democratic members of the House of Representatives sent the Treasury secretary and the IRS commissioner letters in 2022 and 2024 expressing alarm. The House Democrats pointed to what appeared to be "abuse" of the tax code and asked the IRS to "determine whether existing guidance is sufficient to prevent abuse and what resources or Congressional actions are needed."

As a professor of nonprofit law, I believe some groups that aren't churches or associations of churches want to be designated that way to avoid the scrutiny being a charitable organization otherwise requires. At the same time, some other groups that should qualify as churches may have difficulty doing so because of the IRS' outdated test for that status.

Together with my colleague Ellen P. Aprill, I recently published a paper outlining two main arguments in favor of revising the federal government's definitions of churches as they pertain to tax law.

No 990s means less scrutiny

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