Florida church violated its religious exemption status and got slapped with a $7.1 million tax bill

[Soph0571]

The oldest church in Miami has been hit with a mega tax bill by the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser, which determined that the church leased a portion of its grounds to food trucks and a for-profit school — a violation of its religious exemption status, the Miami Herald reports.

The church, located at 609 Brickell Ave., has run a K-8 religious school on the property since 2008. The bill comprises a tax lien totaling $6.5 million (including interest and fines) for the years 2009-2017 and a current bill of $509,526.24 for the 2018 year.

[link:http://deadstate.org/florida-church-violated-its-religious-exemption-status-so-it-got-slapped-with-a-7-1-million-tax-bill/|

Oh my!

[marble falls]

1. So there's a church in Miami that needs to get right with Jesus and the IRS ...

“The property appraiser is doing their job and we are doing ours,” he said. “The rest is in the hands of God.” and the tax lawyers apparently.

[Oppaloopa]

2. Yet they still leave the Scientologist alone.

[AC_Mem]

16. Exactly!

THAT is where they need to investigate!!!!!!

[atreides1]

29. No!!!

All of them need to be investigated, not just one group!!!

[AC_Mem]

30. Understood and agree

however, Scientology is a really dangerous Cult - if there is a list of who needs to be investigated, they need to be at the top.

[Sancho]

3. Tuition is going to go up!

[Racerdog1]

4. About Time

These cults acting and pretending to be churches are nothing but a high form of fraudsters.

[RKP5637]

10. K&R!!! Absolutely!!! All the damn godly cults. n/t

[Larrybanal]

19. and extremely political...jesus is just their cover because they aint christian

[Soxfan58]

5. Now take their exemption

For preaching right wing politics.

[Lonestarblue]

18. Yes!

I’ve always seen the tax exemption for churches as forced subsidies of religion, especially now that evangelicals are so heavily involved in politics. If ministers can tell parishioners who to vote for, those churches should lose their exemption.

[catbyte]

6. Aren't churches supposed to refrain from political activity, too? Why aren't they taxed?

From the IRS website:

The ban on political campaign activity by charities and churches was created by Congress more than a half century ago. The Internal Revenue Service administers the tax laws written by Congress and has enforcement authority over tax-exempt organizations. Here is some background information on the political campaign activity ban and the latest IRS enforcement statistics regarding its administration of this congressional ban.

In 1954, Congress approved an amendment by Sen. Lyndon Johnson to prohibit 501(c)(3) organizations, which includes charities and churches, from engaging in any political campaign activity. To the extent Congress has revisited the ban over the years, it has in fact strengthened the ban. The most recent change came in 1987 when Congress amended the language to clarify that the prohibition also applies to statements opposing candidates.

Currently, the law prohibits political campaign activity by charities and churches by defining a 501(c)(3) organization as one "which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office."

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/charities-churches-and-politics

[RKP5637]

11. Excellent question!!! n/t

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

13. I think that was changed in a bill earlier this year

so that churches could preach politics and not lose their tax empt status. Not positive, but, I think thats been changed. I don't have a link, and i may be wrong. Seems like it was in one of their very first bills.

[mwb970]

7. We need much more of this!

The "no taxes for churches" BS has got to end. We are moving past religion now.

[Ferrets are Cool]

8. This should happen to about 90% of all religious establishments. nt

[RKP5637]

12. Definitely!!! Most are a sham benefiting the authoritarian rulers of the church. And the little

people hand over their money for the imaginary being in the sky.

[mountain grammy]

9. Tax the churches!

[greymattermom]

17. Give them tax write offs for real charity, tax their property and income,

and maybe they will actually help the poor. If they operate a soup kitchen, they would get reduced property tax, for example. It's easy to figure out how this would work.

[lostnfound]

14. Surrounded by high-rises and only 150 parishioners

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Presbyterian_Church_Miami.jpg

Wonder if someone was trying to buy it

[Farmer-Rick]

15. Only 150 parishioners and they racked up over $6.5 million in taxes

True that bill includes fines and interest and covers several years but it says in this year alone they have racked up over half a million.

How much income and property must they own to rack up that kind of cost in taxes alone?

Religion is a scam. If we gave that kind of assistance to farmers, we would all be eating organic, pesticide and Round Up free foods.

[lostnfound]

22. Being surrounded by high rises. property is valuable.

This is probably motivated by a politically connected developer that wants the property.
It’s probably going to be underwater (global warming) in 20 years anyway.

[usaf-vet]

20. I say review tax exempt status of ALL religious institutions.

Revaluate the justifications for maintaining 501C status.

If the church(s) are preaching politics from the pulpit on Sunday pull their status.

If they are funding political activities or candidates pull their status.

If the head of a mega church is living the life of a millionaire / billionaire pull their status.
No more million dollar jets and mega homes while people in their part of the state are struggling to support a family.

And on and on and on.... the many reasons that the tax exempt status is being miss used.

[Major Nikon]

23. Better yet just do away with the exemption altogether

Make churches qualify like all other non-profits. If you wanna run a soup kitchen, tax exempt. Fleecing the flock, not tax exempt.

[usaf-vet]

28. Ok!! that would work for me.

[LittleGirl]

21. Tax the churches!!! eom

[NeoGreen]

25. Agreed,

Food for thought,

[LittleGirl]

27. Yup, that post should be an OP. eom

[Nitram]

24. Yes!

[MineralMan]

26. Tax exemptions like those are a de facto subsidy for churches.

We don't notice it, because we don't see how much taxes they would pay if they were not exempt. This is a good example of how much money that church essentially got from the county by not having to pay the taxes other properties have to pay.

This should be a wake-up call to people who live there. I'll bet that church is wide-awake today about what their violations mean to them. Pay up, folks. You were conducting commercial operations on that property, and are liable for those taxes.

End tax subsidies for all churches!

[Hulk]

31. It's a start...

If I were a congressman, I’d be working to introduce a bill designed to LIMIT the tax exemption for ANY non profit..Churches in particular. Mega churches can exist, but they WOULD BE TAXED on everything over a certain cap.

Non profits might be a little more complicated, but churches would be a no brainer. Property tax everything over $1-2,000,000 at the standard rate; income tax on everything same as a business.

Evangelical heads would explode. I’d be a one term congressman, but it needs to be addressed.

[nitpicker]

32. Is the IRS in their future?

At least on not reporting the food truck income (iif not insignificant) on a 990-T.

The IRS has been much more reluctant to go after church school, because it could be construed as trying to make laws about what religious organizations can have as related businesses.