While being exempt from income and property taxes certainly is a nice perq of being a church, the real draw of being a 501(c)(3) organization is that your donors may deduct their contributions on their tax returns. Your largest donors, therefore, will receive the largest savings from this benefit. Will your same supporters contribute just as much if their contributions are not tax deductible? Certainly something to consider.
>>While being exempt from income and property taxes certainly is a nice perq of being a church, the real draw of being a 501(c)(3) organization is that your donors may deduct their contributions on their tax returns. Your largest donors, therefore, will receive the largest savings from this benefit. Will your same supporters contribute just as much if their contributions are not tax deductible? Certainly something to consider.
I gave that some thought when I wrote my post. But, when I give to my church, I never think of the tax benefits. To be honest, my house is almost paid off and I haven’t been able to itemize in 5 years so my contributions to the church never get deducted from my taxes.