After the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage, religious leaders feared that religious universities, nonprofits and other institutions could lose their tax-exempt status. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has promised the Senate Judiciary Oversight Subcommittee that his agency would not go after the tax-exempt status of religious colleges and universities that oppose gay marriage.
During a hearing Wednesday conducted by the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) asked Koskinen whether the IRS would “not, in the absence of a directive by Congress or by the courts,” take action to remove religious schools’ tax exemption.
“I can make that commitment,” Koskinen said, explaining that “we see no basis for changing our examination criteria as a result of this Supreme Court case.”
Read it all from the Washington Post.
For now. Give them time.
Precisely, Br. Michael. TOE-MAY-TOE versus TOE-MAH-TOE in politically correct-ese.
When our rights hang in the balance of administrative decisions we will continue to be at risk.
I agree #3, but why are we even asking this unelected bureaucrat about what he will or won’t do? Congress needs to be telling him, not asking him.
Congress abdicated it’s legislative prerogatives and authority ages ago. At one time this would have been recognized as the unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority that it is.
The real question is are churches tax exempt in recognition of the 1st Amendment free exercise clause which renders churches tax immune or is the tax exemption simply governmental largess which may be rescinded at any time? I suggest that church tax exemption is required by the 1st Amendment. That, of course, supposes that the Constitution still works and is not the dead letter that I think it has become.