There are concerns that there may be a tax on churches looming on the horizon.
A diverse coalition led by the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has urged members of Congress to repeal a section of a federal law that could force churches to file tax returns for the first time in American history.
The ERLC joined by 32 other organizations sent a letter Nov. 13 to leaders of two congressional committees, and some other members of Congress. Asking them to rescind before 2019 a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which took effect Jan. 1 of this year.
Without repeal, the cost to the charitable sector would be a congressionally estimated $1.7 billion over 10 years.
The provision, Section 512(a)(7), requires houses of worship and non-profits to pay a 21 percent tax on such employee benefits as parking and transportation. The measure not only imposes a new tax hardship on churches and nonprofits but imposes on them “burdensome accounting and regulatory compliance costs,” according to the letter.
The group said the provision “will hopelessly entangle the Internal Revenue Service with houses of worship, simply because these houses of worship allow their clergy to park in their parking lots.”
The coalition said the First Amendment is the basis for not requiring houses of worship to file tax returns.