A 501c3 application by a church for IRS recognition of the church's tax immune status, secured under the First Amendment to the US Constititution, is fairly routine because...
It is a common belief that a church must seek the jurisdiction of the Internal Revenue Service by applying for tax exempt status under 26 US Code 501(c)(3).
APPLICATION
In plain and simple language the Internal Revenue Service disagrees.
In its publication No. 1828..."Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations"... Here is what the Service says...
Although there is no requirement to do so, many churches seek recognition of tax-exempt status from the IRS.
Note the word "confer" is not used. In law the language is fixed and controls the conclusions that may be drawn.
"To recognize" is to acknowledge a preexisting condition. "To confer" is to establish a new condition. For example...a monarch may recognize the (pre-existing) heroic deeds of a soldier...and then confer a knighthood on the soldier (a new condition).
The IRS notes that it only recognizes a church's tax immunity...which is secured by the Constitution. The IRS makes no claim anywhere...and has never claimed...that it possesses authority to confer tax immunity on churches. Such immunity preexisted, according to the First Amendment to the Constitution, long before the IRS was created.
However, a 501c3 application for recognition of church immunity to taxation gives the federal government the consent it needs to regulate the church and its religious and political activities...even when government regulations appear to violate or seek to suppress God's law (such as prohibiting posting the Ten Commandments in public, or having a Christmas creche on the village green).
And so, what happens when churches who submitted a 501c3 application complain about government infringement on their constitutional rights (which they agreed not to exercise by submitting a 501c3 application)? The courts routinely rule against the church...and rightly so... because...
It is a maxim in law that
he who consents cannot complain of an injury.
How the IRS 501c3 Application Limits Ministry APPLICATION
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