Churches hosting Turning Point get-out-the-vote events likely violate tax law, experts say [View all]
Source: NBC News
Oct. 31, 2024, 10:44 AM EDT
A right-wing activist group’s reliance on evangelical churches for Republican get-out-the-vote efforts could land the congregations in hot water with the IRS, legal experts say. Turning Point Action, founded by conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk, has held GOP vote-chasing events with at least 22 churches in six swing states since March, according to research conducted by the progressive watchdog group Documented and verified by NBC News.
It is part of Turning Point’s push to contact people likely to support former President Donald Trump to encourage them to vote. “What they’re doing almost definitely violates the Johnson Amendment,” said Sam Brunson, a law professor at Loyola University in Chicago, referring to the 1954 law that bars churches and other nonprofit groups from directly supporting political candidates.
There’s a long history of churches — including progressive and historically Black congregations — getting involved in elections, by registering voters, canvassing neighborhoods and providing transportation to polling sites. Those efforts are legal as long as they don’t explicitly target or exclude voters based on party affiliation. Many churches cross the line every year, by either hosting candidates or making endorsements from the pulpit, while rarely drawing sanctions from the IRS.
But what Turning Point is doing — relying on congregations to do explicitly partisan campaign work — “is at a different level than anything I’ve seen before,” said Philip Hackney, a University of Pittsburgh law professor and former IRS official. He and four other nonpartisan legal experts told NBC News that such activities could jeopardize the churches’ tax-exempt status.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/turning-point-action-church-voting-pro-trump-tax-law-rcna178053
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