The Irs According to pastors, who support political candidates from the pulpit, should not have to risk losing their tax -exempt status.
The move effectively calls for a carver for religious organizations from the rarely used IRS rule, which was referred to as Johnson change and was set up in 1954 and named after which at that time. Lyndon Johnson.
In a joint court registration, which is intended to end an ongoing procedure against the IRS, the tax increase authority and the national religious broadcasting association – an evangelical media consortium – and other plaintiffs, asked a federal court in Texas to prevent the government from enforcing Johnson against the plaintiffs.
The Johnson amendment is a amendment to the US Tax Code from 1954, which prohibits tax-exhausted organizations, including churches, from confirmation or opposing political candidates.
Last August, the Christian media group and others filed a lawsuit against the IRS last August, in which it was found that the change violates the freedom of speech and freedom of religion, among other things, against religious freedom. On Monday, the IRS and the plaintiffs wrote that the Johnson change should be interpreted “so that in connection with religious services, through its usual communication channels, they do not achieve communication from a house of worship to its community.”
The New York Times first reported the news from the court registration.
The IRS has not enforced the Johnson change against worship houses for speech in connection with electoral policy.
President Donald Trump said he wanted to get rid of the Johnson change And signed an executive order in 2017, in which the Ministry of Finance was cited to ignore the rule.
“I will get rid of and completely destroy the Johnson amendment and allow our representatives of faith free and without fear of retaliation,” Trump said in 2017 in a national prayer breakfast, a top-class event that brings faith leaders, politicians and dignity together.
Representatives of the IRS and the national religious transmitter association did not respond to an Associated Press application for comments.
At the beginning of this year, the Republican legislators introduced a law to remove Johnson change.
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