Current Events

For a comparison of the current health care reform proposals from the three Congressional committees, go to www.kff.org/healthreform/sidebyside.cfm. The current proposals generally focus on forced coverage for employees, with penalties for employers who do not comply. For example, House Democrats propose a penalty of 8% of payroll for employers who fail to fund 65% of employee insurance premiums. Small employers would be exempt – depending on the proposal, a ‘small employer’ could mean fewer than 25 employees, or total payroll less than $250,000. The plans would also require all individuals to have insurance, or face penalties.

According to a field directive issued in July 2008, the IRS considers nonprofit organizations responsible for information contained on linked sites in the same manner the nonprofit organization is responsible for its own printed or published materials. This field directive (see at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/internetfielddirective072808.pdf) relates directly to political campaign activities. This is based largely on Rev. Rul. 2007-41 (see at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rr-07-41.pdf) which states that a Web page is the same as printed material, and the organization has control over which links are placed on the Web page. Therefore, the organization is responsible for the content of the linked material.

Many of the popular social networking sites today such as Twitter and Facebook are being used by churches, ministries, and those that work with them more than ever to reach followers. This is one of the many new ways the younger generation communicates and churches and ministries have taken notice. Blogs have become popular over the last few years as well.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/twitter/52740...

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/may/02/faithbook-lawrence-religious-gr...

The Minnesota federal district court last month decided that current IRS procedures for opening tax investigations of churches does not comply with legal requirements for pre-approval by a high-level Treasury official. Currently, the head of the IRS exempt organizations exam division approves all church audits. But the court said that the law requires approval from a higher-level official.

Reverend James Hammond and his Church, Living Word Christian Center of Brooklyn Park, MN appears to have won a small victory in their most recent round with the Internal Revenue Service.

Earlier this year, the IRS asked Church to provide detailed financial information, focusing on compensation of the founder and senior pastor of the church James Hammond. The Church refused to comply, arguing that they did not have to because the request was not made by a “high ranking” IRS official, which is required by law.