Another view on the matter of 501(c)(3) donations:
“They almost certainly have not violated their tax exemption,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the leading advocacy organization on the issue. “While the tax code has a zero tolerance for endorsements of candidates, the tax code gives wide latitude for churches to engage in discussions of policy matters and moral questions, including when posed as initiatives.”
Generally speaking, churches, schools, and nonprofits that are 501c(3) organizations are prohibited from spending more than 20 percent of their budgets on political activities, Lynn said, noting that his organization is held to the same standard.
The 20 percent threshold means that the Catholic or Mormon churches, whose organizations span the globe, would have had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars – if not billions – to violate their tax-exempt status.
. . . The issue was last debated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1970, according to Jesse Choper, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law. Choper said the court acknowledged that the history of tax exemption for churches stretches back to the nation’s beginnings. The court ruled that because tax exemption was a benefit not solely given to religious groups, but included groups like schools and nonprofits, it was fair.
. . . That doesn’t satisfy Negev, the Prop. 8 protester.
“Why are they even having these tax-exempt laws if churches can exert so much power on issues of civil rights,” said Negev, who attends Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, a reform synagogue that opposed the measure. “Why have these laws in the first place?”
angryXer 