Proposed IRS Rules Address Ranking of Official Pursuing Church Tax Inquiries

Aug 5, 2009 by Lateefah Williams*

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has proposed rules that would give the Director of Exempt Organizations the authority to pursue church tax inquiries. This became a big issue when a lawsuit, United States v. Living Word Christian Center, was filed challenging the IRS’ assertion of what officials were high ranking enough to initiate church tax inquiries. The federal district court in that case ruled that the Director of Exempt Organizations Examinations was not a high enough ranking official to initiate the inquiries.