Can churches, religious groups or mixed-used organizations qualify to receive eligible contributions?
• Under most proposals, churches and mixed-use organizations would qualify if they spent a certain percentage of their funds providing services to designated recipients or if they partitioned qualified services from the remainder of their budgets with no cross spending. For example, a tax credit proposal in Oklahoma restricted charitable donations made to churches or charitable organizations to the specific division offering qualified services to the poor. • State legislators and religious leaders may worry that church parishioners would substitute giving to the church in exchange for giving to the part of the church that services the poor or receives contributions. States could stipulate that tax credits would be offered only for contributions over and above those made in the previous year. Many parishioners would give to the church as well as to the section of the church that provides services to the poor.
