Federal Tax Exempt Status

Step four is to get your federal tax exempt status.  We recommend filing with us to be included under the group exemption granted by the IRS to the EFCA.  To come under our group exemption, once you receive your FEIN (sometimes referred to as an EIN), call the number into the EFCA administration office (Laura Brice).  The national EFCA office needs this number because once a year we submit a report to the IRS listing all the new churches authorized to use our 501(c)(3) status along with their respective FEIN.  You must obtain an EIN from the IRS and report that number to us for the IRS to recognize your church as coming under our tax exempt status.

Contact Laura Brice at the EFCA office (800-745-2202).  She will walk you through the process for becoming tax exempt 501(c)(3) under the EFCA's group exemption.  It is one of the ways our national EFCA office serves our church plants. 

Often, the district contacts our national office for you because they need to sign an application indicating the date you were approved as a plant, but please check with your district to be sure this was done.

A church plant needs to get 501(c)(3) status in order for their donors to receive tax deductions in the giving of their tithes and offerings.

Click here for a copy of the form Request to be Included Under EFCA Federal Group Tax Exemption.

Click here for a copy of the 501(c)(3) Authorization form.

Both forms need to be completed.

To complete the request form, you can hold your cursor over two drop down boxes to pick the appropriate information. One box is to select your district.  The other box will say "membership in" and "affiliation through."  For all districts except EFCA West, choose "membership in."  If you are planting in the EFCA West District, please choose "affiliation through."