IRS Looking at Benny Hinn Organization

DALLAS (AP) _ The Internal Revenue Service is looking into the operations and finances of televangelist Benny Hinn's organization, according to a published report.

The IRS wouldn't discuss the case, but a representative for Benny Hinn Ministries confirmed to The Dallas Morning News that the inquiry is under way, characterizing it as routine.

Critics have argued that Hinn improperly profits from a ministry that hasn't met the IRS definition of a church for years. The ministry is estimated to raise more than $100 million a year.

But his public relations contractor dismissed the possibility that tax exemptions could be at risk. Hinn spokesman Ronn Torossian said the ministry has "fully cooperated with the IRS" and is not being audited.

Hinn's ministry, formally renamed the World Healing Center Church in 2000, has had its administrative and mail-processing headquarters in Grapevine since a year earlier. Hinn, 52, and his family live in California.

According to documents provided to the newspaper by a watchdog group, the inquiry into the ministry began a year ago and the IRS has asked for dozens of detailed answers. The Trinity Foundation has investigated Hinn for more than a decade.

Hinn ministry responses to IRS questions and a purported salary list for ministry officials are among documents that Trinity members said they salvaged from trash bins outside Hinn-related offices.

The salary document lists Hinn as CEO and his annual earnings as $1.325 million. Attorneys for the ministry, in a letter to The News, said the document was either a fake or had been stolen.

The newspaper found that another watchdog group's complaint to the IRS _ that the ministry lacks financial oversight and independent governance _ may have led the agency to question the operation through what's called a church tax-inquiry letter.

Wall Watchers, a North Carolina-based advocacy group for religious donors, recently issued an alert about the Hinn ministry through its Ministry Watch Web site.

Wall Watchers sent a letter to the IRS early last year calling for an investigation of the Hinn Ministry, said Rod Pitzer, Wall Watchers' research director.

Hinn and his attorneys, who declined to be interviewed, have maintained the ministry uses proper accounting.

I am starting to wonder if the federal government might be using a two standards for what qualifies as a religion - a strict standard when qualifying for tax exemption, and a broad interpretation when evaluating possible "separation of church and state" violations.

They are, in fact, very different standards. For tax exemption, you must be not merely a religion, but a charitable corporation which meets all the requirements of section 501(c) of the tax code.

"I find this thread cynical and disconcerting."

What is more disconcerting then a false prophet?

This man and others like him suggest that if you are not healthy in your body then it is you or your loved ones fault because you do not have faith.

I do not have one doubt not even a grain of sand size doubt that if God wanted to heal me He would, but I remain ill, so how could that be?

Christ before being handed over said to His Father our God if it is for the benefit of the kingdom so be it. I can see all the people that have come into my path and my husbands that would not have if I had stayed "healthy"

In fact I would not be Mrs Kezekiel and there is a long line of fruit after that. Maybe God will heal me someday and maybe not, He may send someone to pray and lay hands and may not, I may just be sitting at my computer and He heals and maybe not, but even if water started running uphill God is still God and it is my charge that no matter what happens to say, if it is for your benefit Father so be it.

This man caused so much heartache among people who already struggle, for his own benefit. He is as bad as some of the worst in our world. The world would be up in arms if he was selling sugar pills claiming they cure illness but what he did was the same in a different package.

I am glad the AoG church refused to have him as a Pastor.

If we who believe started to say in the times of trouble, even looming death "God if it is in benefit of your kingdom let it come" how different would the church look today, these liars would have no platform. There is little I find more deceitful then a man like Benny who uses what is freely given as a commodity to be sold.

Take Care and peace

Love you Kezekiel

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