After the Passage of California's Proposition 8. Will the Tax Man Want to Audit People Who Tithe?

An interesting effect of the Proposition 8 battle is that money collected by a lot of "Christian" sources made its way into a political battle. And BTW, if you live outside of Calfornia, you are not exempt from this worry as most of the money supporting our Proposition 8 came from sources outside the state.

Two foundations, I know that are high on the list in donations to one of the the committees for promoting Proposition 8 (sorted with big contributions at top) are both religiously based and pretend they are 'charitable' foundations.  . The above linked page shows only donations to one of the pro Proposition 8 groups (and note there are hundreds more pages after the first).  Here are links to donation pages for other pro 8 groups. 1, 2, and my all time favorite pro Proposition 8 committee: Bigots Against Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness which unfortunately hasn't received any donations, so I couldn't sort on amount.  (I'm beginning to suspect that group name was some kind of joke, and a really good one at that.)  Please note that the sites for the above linked groups tended to have more than one page.  The first one linked actually had 250 pages of donors.  Click on other page links to see more donors and check if your church  contributed directly to one of the major groups promoting Proposition 8.  It could still be possible that your church could be donating your tithe or other gifts to one of the advocacy groups that are found on the lists.  You will have to check that out with them.  Don't take generalities. Demand to see the records, and check out every group to which your church donates.

Y0u as a donor of tithe money might be audited and have to pay the tax and penalties on money leaking into political acts by "charities".  Personally I don't see what denying marriage -- and thereby denying equal protection under the law -- has to do with 'charity', but these groups know the biggest losers will be their donors who may live in fear of the audit for which they may not know were illegally deducted from their income tax.

If you are donating to other groups on this list like the Prince family's favorite "Focus on the Family" or the other political groups on the list, you'd better know that any promises of deductibility shouldn't be trusted.  These groups may have gotten through the last eight years without an audit dragging in their donors, but I don't think the government is going to ignore religion allied groups playing two step with tithe  and 'charity' money anymore.  

Indeed, by searching I've found the blog of a Mormon woman worrying in the aftermath of earlier anti gay battles apparently hosted by the church whether it's 401(c)3 status will be revoked.  The woman doesn't seem to see transparency in what is done with the tithes she makes to her church.  More people should be worried about them.  It can impact your own life.

It's not to the church the taxman will come calling if it loses it's tax exempt status.  It's to the congregation of donors.

My church constantly updates what it is doing with tithes and donations, now on the web.  Ten years ago one had to stop by the office to look at the records. Thank you, Al Gore. Also, at the end of the year a printed report is presented to each member of the congregation that wants one.  This was not a happy coincident.  We searched long and hard for a church that met our needs, politically, spiritually, and with full disclosure over what they did with their money.  I can't believe the number of people who just stay in the church to which  their family consigned them.  Not checking out the way a church is run is a good way to end up in a church which is misusing the tithe and abusing the trust the congregation has put into it.

That being said, an article I read said that the Mormon contributions to the pro Proposition 8 campaign came from individual families not the church itself, and I can't identify  a Mormon church group on the lists I saw, but then again I don't know what Mormon charities are named.