Church leaders say they are prepared to mount a legal challenge against the government, if any effort is made to treat tithes and offerings as financial donations under the impending Non-Profit Organisations Act.
The church leaders made their stance known during a recent online sensitisation meeting organised by the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches’ Public Witness Committee and the Lawyers Christian Fellowship. Participants were informed that the proposed legislation is expected to replace the Charities Act.
Several details remain unclear because a draft bill and regulations have not yet been made available, but Attorney At-law Helene Coley-Nicholson, who led the presentation, said churches that collect tithes and offerings could fall under the definition of a non-profit organisation used by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The FATF defines a non-profit organisation as a legal person, legal arrangement, or organisation that primarily engages in raising or disbursing funds for charitable, religious, cultural, educational, social, or fraternal purposes, or for the carrying out of other types of “good works”.
The stated purpose of the proposed legislation is to protect non-profit organisations from being misused for terrorist financing, money laundering and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
According to Coley-Nicholson, Jamaica is expected to adopt the FATF definition of non-profit organisations. To ascertain whether or not churches are included under the FATF definition, Coley-Nicholson had previously contacted a compliance officer at the Companies Office of Jamaica on the matter.
“The answer was yes, definitely yes,” Coley-Nicholson reported.
She said churches collecting offerings could be required to display their registration status.
“When you’re soliciting money, accepting your offering on a Sunday morning, that’s called soliciting money or other property for the benefit of the organization. You have to have your registration, that you are registered in legible characters,” she said.
The potential consequences of non-registration was a major concern raised during the meeting. Coley-Nicholson said documents circulated previously, referred to a fine of $1 million and possible imprisonment for non-registration of churches under the Act. However, she said materials circulated as recent as August regarding the proposed Act, did not specify the amount of the fine.
“They did say that there would be, they didn’t quantify the fine, but they did say that there would be fines and imprisonment as possible penalties,” she said.
She repeatedly acknowledged that the absence of a draft bill and regulations meant that some of the possible consequences remained uncertain.
The attorney said that based on her understanding of the proposed framework, a church that collected offerings without registering could be considered in breach of the law.
“Once you take up that offering and you have not registered, you will be deemed to be in breach, is my understanding, and subject to this fine and/or imprisonment,” she said.
But for Christians, tithes and offering is an Act of Worship. Coley-Nicholson made it known that churches have a distinct constitutional position because of the protection of freedom of religion. In her view, churches should not simply request exemption from the proposed law, as doing so could suggest that they are fundamentally the same as other non-profit organisations.
“I don’t know that churches ought to be asking for exemption. It seems to me that churches are on a different footing entirely,” she said.
Coley-Nicholson later described the proposed legislation as a possible threat to the way churches currently operate.
“I see it as a threat to the existence of church as we know it,” she said.
Chartered accountant Milton May also expressed concern about the potential impact on churches.
“What I’m finding is that even the organizations and the entities that are registered are not currently up to date; a lot of them are not up to date. They are not compliant,” May said, while pointing to the cost that will be incurred by churches to become up to date.
“An auditor’s cost can be in excess of $500,000. Almost like a minimum,” he noted.
“A person will likely walk away from their calling because of a restriction,” the accountant said.
Church leaders in attendance, discussed the possibility of coming together to challenge the legislation. The cost of legal representation and the need to identify which entity would represent them were raised as potential challenges, but they expressed a commitment to mount a challenge if necessary.