Church Incorporation Yes Or No ?
 

I haven't this posted about this in a while but is there benefit in churches and ministries incorporating ?
Some say yes,and some are opposed and say it's not necessary,and say incorporation invites govt. interference.
What are the pluses and minuses of church incorporation ?

Re: Church Incorporation Yes Or No ?
 

We just had our church business meeting, last Sunday. The pastor said we were a corporation, could you please elaborate and explain what this means?

GOD BLESS!
Bro. Alex

Re: Church Incorporation Yes Or No ?
 

Isn't incorporation required to receive status as a non-profit group to receive tax exemption?

Re: Church Incorporation Yes Or No ?
 

Yes, it is Bro. Sam. And, if Im not mistaken, to operate a school or day care center legally, the church should be incorporated. And with corporation the church property "belongs" to the church. Should they affliate with an organization, the organization cannot "take" their property in the event the church decides to later di-affilitae (as what happened in the 70's and 80's with The Church of Jesus Christ, Inc (Cleveland, Tennessee) Since that name (TCOJC) was legally trademarked, any churches that affliated and put the name TCOJC on the building was legally subject to seizure by the group. (Hence the carefully worded by-law that required affliated churches to bear the name TCOJC). Churches were seized in Tennessee and in Florida. Corporation keeps that fiasco from taking place.

Re: Church Incorporation Yes Or No ?
 

To receive 501(c)(3) status yes you must incorporate as such. This gives you certain deductions and a church corporation is also qualified to own property in its name, while an unincorporated association is not.

Also, a church corporation may sue and be sued.

But perhaps the most important benefit is a church corporation shields individual church members from risks and liabilities that may be incurred by the church. In other words, each member of the association could face personal responsibility for the debts and liabilities of the church

In addition, every state and the District of Columbia, have a set of laws that allow churches to secure exemptions from some or all of the following taxes: corporate, income, sales, use, personal property, and real property taxes. Without an IRS determination letter, it could be difficult to secure some of those exemptions.

Re: Church Incorporation Yes Or No ?
 

Interference is a broad term. For the most part the government interferes whether you are incorporated or not. There are different types of incorporation but the one most familiar to the church world would be the 501(c) (3) so named because of where it is found in the Internal Revenue code. Unless you are so incorporated donors will not be able to deduct contributions to your church from their taxes.

If you are a church group there are certain restrictions on your political speech.

http://www.apostolicfriendsforum.com...3&postcount=24

(Above is a link to an article on this topic in another thread).


But not all non-profits have the same restrictions.

The primary trigger for governmental interference would be to accept federal funds, those invariably come with strings and lots and lots of rules. Example getting some type of grant for a church school.

How this helped answer your question, if not PM me :-)

Re: Church Incorporation Yes Or No ?
 

Good answer, would slightly amend the first part. It is possible for an unincorporated church to run a school or daycare, however to do so would open the church (and the leadership as individuals) to nearly unlimited personal liability, plus they could not apply for certain funds, claim certain deductions etc. :-)

As to what happens with dis-affiliation, it would depend on largely on wording of corporate charter when joined the organization, so thats an "it depends"

Re: Church Incorporation Yes Or No ?
 

I'm not sure I understand what happened in your example.
A church affiliated with TCOJC would put that name on the building, then later decide to dis-affiliate but had to forfeit the building to an organization named TCOJC? Did affiliation with TCOJC require an existing autonomous church to sign the title over to TCOJC?

There are many groups using COJC in their names. Which group was this? Are they still in existence? Who was the presiding bishop at that time and who is presiding bishop now? How widespread was that?

Can that happen now if a church is UPC affiliated?

Does this mean a group of people can establish a church, build it up from nothing to a sizable congregation with valuable property over a period of time and then lose all that if they affiliate?

Re: Church Incorporation Yes Or No ?
 

Can it happen? Yes

Would it happen? It depends

Re: Church Incorporation Yes Or No ?
 

Please forgive my typo error as I meant to say I haven't posted about this in awhile.