Satanic Temple: IRS has designated it a tax-exempt church
Posted Apr 25, 2019 05:21:35 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SALEM, Mass. — The Satanic Temple says it’s been designated a church by the Internal Revenue Service.
The Salem, Massachusetts-based organization provided The Associated Press with a notice it recently received communicating its new tax-exempt status. The letter used a code that classifies it as a “church or a convention or association of churches.”
The group is now listed in an IRS database for tax-exempt organizations. An email seeking comment was sent to the IRS.
The group says the designation will help in religious discrimination legal cases and allow it to pursue faith-based government grants.
The “non-theistic” group advocates for a stricter separation of church and state. It placed a statue of the goat-headed creature Baphomet at the Arkansas state capitol last year to call for the removal of a Ten Commandments monument.
The Associated Press
