The Church of No Taxes

Head Minister Kevin Hartshorn is the founder of the Church of Compassionate Serviceand now has about 50 ministers under his tutelage. The mantra that his church practices and preaches is that none of them have to pay their income taxes. In their attempt to not pay their income tax, the church’s ministers all took a vow of property. Any income that the ministers receive from their normal jobs goes into the church’s trust. In addition to relinquishing their paychecks, the ministers turned over their houses and the mortgages to their homes. In return, the church agreed to pay the mortgages as long as the ministers continued maintaining their homes. 

In United States v. Hartshorn, the court granted the IRS an injunction to stop the preaching of Head Minister Hartshorn. The court also ruled that the scheme that Hartshorn established would not prevent the ministers from incurring tax liability; therefore, the IRS still considers the minister’s paychecks as taxable income. In granting the injunction, the court noted that Head Minister Hartshorn should have known that his plan was not legitimate, making the injunction proper.

See Robert Wood, IRS Gives Tax Sermons Vow of Silence, Forbes, Mar. 24, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.