General Discussion

we are to believe that he and his family have no ownership/lease on a home, no ownership/lease on any vehicles? People wondering about whether he is running money through the church need to know that the IRS is not going to allow a scheme where you donate your income to the "church" and then the "church" provides everything for you. Those things will still be required to be stated as income. Also any legal claims to the money are considered to be assets.

Even if you claim that others are paying for your lifestyle it must be declared as income according to IRS rules. Any income, regardless of taxable or non-taxable, must be accounted for under accounting rules. If you try to declare that the money in to you from the "church" equaled the money spent for your lifestyle you still have a taxable income situation. So in addition to tax fraud, abuse of non-profit status etc. there may also be fraudulent filings of required forms based on fraudulent accounting practices. Some people think that they could avoid taxes by being a minister but they would be wrong. Here is a link to a little more info about that.

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc417