Exposed: The IRS Won't Explain How it Audits Churches

Mariana Barillas

Politics,

And that is a huge problem...

A nonprofit legal organization that advocates freedom of religion is demanding the Internal Revenue Service explain how it audits churches.

“The freedom of religion is too important to … allow an administrative agency with enormous power like the IRS to just do as it pleases, with no accountability,” Erik Stanley, Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel, told The Daily Signal in an interview.

Alliance Defending Freedom filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on April 8, alleging the IRS has failed to fully comply with a legal obligation to release documents related to the federal agency’s internal policies and procedures.

Stanley said the organization’s legal team is holding the IRS’ “feet to the fire” to make sure the constitutional rights of churches are protected.

Alliance Defending Freedom began its investigation after the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes the separation of church and state, filed a lawsuit against the IRS and an Anglican church. The foundation described a priest’s pro-life advocacy as a violation of the church’s tax status and demanded the IRS enforce its ban on politicking from the pulpit. The case ended up being dismissed—at the foundation’s request—by a Wisconsin federal judge.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation had requested the dismissal of its own lawsuit because it was assured by the IRS that the agency would adopt new protocols and procedures for church investigations, according to a press release from the foundation. All Alliance Defending Freedom wants to know is what those protocols and procedures are, Stanley said.