In our June 25, 2021 Chairman’s Report, we discussed an example of the IRS bureaucrats hard at work denying the exemption to Christians Engaged, a nonprofit that urges Christians to pray for elected officials and vote because “[B]ible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates.”
This bias against Republicans by not just the IRS bureaucrats but most federal bureaucrats is well-known. However, most of these bureaucrats do not publicly admit their bias like Stephen A. Martin, the director of the IRS Office of Exempt Organizations Rulings and Agreements.
Not only did we expose this idiocy and obvious bias by Martin and the IRS in our Chairman’s Report, but there were complaints from around the country about this egregious behavior.
House Ways and Means Republican leader Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Oversight Subcommittee Republican leader Mike Kelly, R-Pennsylvania, sent a letter on June 29, 2021 to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig asking him to address their concerns.
“The IRS denial letter singles out Christians Engaged, the organization applying for tax exempt status, because the agency views bible teachings to be Republican-affiliated. Here are some of their points:
- First, it is widely known that Democrats also have strongly held religious beliefs.
- Even this week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki described President Biden as “a strong man of faith” and described his beliefs as something not to be viewed “through a political prism.”
- Given the strongly held beliefs in biblical teachings by politicians on both sides of the aisle, it is unfounded to conclude that biblical teachings are affiliated with any particular political party.
- This approach to examining tax-exempt status applications is a dangerous one.
- The Bible teaches that murder is wrong. Will the IRS deny tax-exempt status to groups working to reduce violent crime in local communities?
- The Bible teaches that people should care for their elders. Will the IRS consider revoking tax-exempt status for groups that support and promote elder care?
- The Bible teaches that one should do to others what you would have them do to you. Will the IRS revoke the tax-exempt status of organizations designed to combat child bullying?
- Concluding that biblical teachings are “affiliated” with a political party simply because a party may take a position that in some way overlaps with a particular teaching in the Bible would lead to the absurd results suggested above.
- Additionally, the IRS appears to be back to picking winners and losers.
- The agency denied tax exempt status to Christians Engaged, which seeks to empower individuals to pray, vote, and engage in “some form of political education or activism.”
- Yet the IRS recognizes the exempt status of similarly situated groups advocating to “increase participation in each and every election” and “foster civic engagement,” such as When We All Vote, created by Michelle Obama.
- This discrepancy is alarming and warrants further explanation.
- Given our serious concerns, please provide the following:
1. A list of groups that were denied tax-exempt status for being “affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates” since 2019.
2. A list of organizations that were granted tax-exempt status and had a mission of increasing voter participation and civic education.
3. A briefing by the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Group on the process currently used to evaluate applications for tax-exempt status like the one submitted by Christians Engaged.
2. A list of organizations that were granted tax-exempt status and had a mission of increasing voter participation and civic education.
3. A briefing by the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Group on the process currently used to evaluate applications for tax-exempt status like the one submitted by Christians Engaged.
Many prominent Republican lawmakers used this obvious bias to argue against the Biden administration to increase the IRS budget an additional $8 billion per year—a more than 50% increase in the IRS budget.
The presumed justification for this additional $8 billion is that the IRS would collect a significant amount of the $1 trillion of evaded taxes that even the IRS now admits is unpaid. This was going to allow the administration to claim that some of its huge spending proposals would actually be paid from previously evaded taxes that were being collected.
Of course, there is no real basis to conclude that the increased IRS budget will actually result in collecting any significant amount of the evaded income taxes. There will be more audits but that alone will not result in more than a relatively small amount of additional taxes being collected.
As previously discussed by us, the main benefit of the additional funding would be to “modernize” the IRS computer systems that over the next few years to allow it to be more efficient at “assessing” income taxes based on what the computer said. This is very scary but will take some years to accomplish.
The actual fact is that this was just a D.C. way of blaming the fact of the additional money to the IRS on “evil evaders.”
FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE
On their website, First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans. We believe that every American of any faith—or no faith at all—has a fundamental right to follow their conscience and live according to their beliefs.
First Liberty appealed the IRS’s determination against Christians Engaged. In early July, just after Americans celebrated Independence Day, the IRS reversed course and granted Christians Engaged tax-exempt status.
“This is truly great news for our client, as well as religious organizations and churches across America,” said Lea Patterson, Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “We are grateful the IRS changed course to bring its decision into line with the Constitution and its own regulations.”
Christians Engaged President Bunni Pounds said, “I am incredibly thankful to the IRS for doing the right thing, and we look forward to continuing our mission of educating more followers of Jesus to pray for our nation and to be civically engaged. When we stand up, our republic works for all Americans.”
CONCLUSION
Christians Engaged may have gotten its deserved exemption, but the use of the IRS to promote a political agenda is still a huge problem. The Biden Administration and some members of Congress seemed more concerned not with the wanton abuse of power and discrimination by Mr. Martin and the IRS but that these people were stupid to put their real agenda in writing.
Mr. Biden and many who are aligned with him seem to believe that the IRS should be used to promote their agenda and not assist anyone that might oppose their agenda. This arrogant position that only “they” have the intellect and judgment to decide what is good for the rest of us is simply not true.
Look at Mr. Biden’s attack on FaceBook that by allowing posts that advise against the Covid vaccine, FaceBook is not allowing freedom of speech but killing people.
If you want to prevent the IRS from being further weaponized to punish those of us who may object to the D.C. opinions and dictates of what is good for us, then help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!
The IRS will be gone and we will pay our taxes when we make purchases. WE and not D.C. Elites will decide how much federal tax we pay!
If you have friends who don’t know about the FAIRtax, send them to FAIRtax.org. Have them watch the white boards under “How It Works” and, if they agree, ask them to please join us.
Then contact your Members of Congress and the President and demand that Congress pass -the FAIRtax—the only fair tax.
Remember, if we don't continue to tell the truth and demand a change, then this quote from George Orwell's 1984 may foretell our children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
Is it hopeless? When confronted with a seemingly impossible problem, remember the statement attributed to the author George Bernard Shaw who wrote, You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”
Isn’t it time for us to ask, “Why not?”