Nonsense. There is not a single court case to uphold this IRS regulation. The IRS knows the regulation is so blatently unconstitutional it has never even tried to enforce it in court. Not one. single. time.
Wasn’t 501-3c contrived by the Johnson (LBJ) Administration?
Patton@Bastogne is correct. Incorporating as a 501-C3 does not grant tax-exempt status to churches. Churches are automatically tax exempt as soon as they are formed—there are not any requirements as to ownership, structure or anything else.
What 501-C3 status does grant, like any other corporate body, is limitation of liability for church leaders. Churches without 501-C3 status can give legal tax receipts and perform legal marriages, but church leaders are personally liable for all church affairs. Under 501-C3, church leaders voluntarily place the church under government regulation in trade for limited liability.
Once a church is incorporated, they are subject to whatever the Feds decide. Without incorporation, the feds have no oversight, and would be in precarious legal territory with any challenge. Of course, personal lawsuits could be used to intimidate churches, but such suits would be played on a more even field.