Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

October 2018 – By the Hand Club for Kids, a ministry of Chicago’s Moody Church, has qualified as non-taxable since its creation in 2001. The club serves underprivileged children by providing free food, medical care, and education. It also holds chapel services, Bible studies, discipleship events, prayer, and worship.

In 2015, the Illinois Department of Employment Security questioned the tax-exempt rights of the ministry and attempted to assess unemployment compensation taxes.

On July 18, the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, ruled the state cannot tax the ministry because of the obvious religious context for the services it provides.

“Not only is the government wrong on the law when it attempts to tax a non-taxable entity, it is doing no one any favors by improperly burdening the finances of a ministry motivated to serve needy children explicitly because of its Christian mission,” said legal counsel Jeremiah Galus of Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the ministry in the case.

ADF press release, 7/18/18