WASHINGTON — The IRS says pastors who endorse political candidates from the pulpit shouldn’t need to danger dropping their tax-exempt standing.
The transfer successfully requires a carve out for non secular organizations from the not often used IRS rule known as the Johnson Modification, put in place in 1954 and named after then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson.
In a joint courtroom submitting meant to finish an ongoing case towards the IRS, the tax assortment company and the Nationwide Non secular Broadcasters Affiliation — a Evangelical media consortium — and different plaintiffs have requested a federal courtroom in Texas to cease the federal government from implementing the Johnson Modification towards the plaintiffs.
The Johnson Modification is a 1954 modification to the U.S. tax code that prohibits tax-exempt organizations, together with church buildings, from endorsing or opposing political candidates.
The Christian media group and others filed swimsuit towards the IRS final August, stating that the modification violates their First Modification rights to the liberty of speech and free train of faith, amongst different authorized protections. On Monday, the IRS and plaintiffs wrote that the Johnson Modification needs to be interpreted “in order that it doesn’t attain communications from a home of worship to its congregation in reference to non secular companies by means of its normal channels of communication on issues of religion.”
The New York Instances was first to report the information of the courtroom submitting.
The IRS has typically not enforced the Johnson Modification towards homes of worship for speech associated to electoral politics.
President Donald Trump has said he wanted to get rid of the Johnson Amendment and signed an government order in 2017 directing Treasury to ignore the rule.
“I’ll eliminate and completely destroy the Johnson Modification and permit our representatives of religion to talk freely and with out worry of retribution,” Trump stated at a Nationwide Prayer Breakfast in 2017, which is a high-profile occasion bringing collectively religion leaders, politicians and dignitaries.
Representatives from the IRS and the Nationwide Non secular Broadcasters Affiliation didn’t reply to an Related Press request for remark.
Earlier this yr, Republican lawmakers launched laws to take away the Johnson Modification.
