IRS probes churches’ activities

Sat., Nov. 6, 2004

Religion News Service

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating about 20 churches on charges of improper election-related activity and denies the probes are politically motivated.

IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said the agency is investigating more than 60 cases of nonprofit groups possibly engaged in illegal partisan activity. About one-third of the cases involve churches, he said.

“Career civil servants, not political appointees, make these decisions in a fair, impartial manner,” Everson said. “Any suggestion that the IRS has tilted its audit activities for political purposes is repugnant and groundless.”

Since April, the IRS has issued two reminders to religious groups and candidates, advising them that nonprofit groups are prohibited from working “on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office.”

A Presbyterian pastor from Virginia said an IRS official told his lawyers that he could jeopardize his church’s tax-exempt status if he publicly prayed that God “grant President Bush four more years.”

But an agency spokeswoman said: “The IRS has never issued a ruling telling people how to pray.”

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