(RNS) — In 2017, Texas-based televangelist Kenneth Copeland told his followers he received a very specific message from the Holy Spirit: The Lord had set aside a luxury Gulfstream V jet for his ministry’s use.
Copeland purchased the jet — in cash — from renowned filmmaker Tyler Perry in November of that year and soon released a celebratory video, along with an ask for another $2.5 million for upgrades.
“Let’s be aggressive in our faith, in our giving and in our harvesting!” the January 12, 2018, post said.
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Copeland is one of a handful of prosperity gospel pastors who insist that jets are essential to their ministry. “If I flew commercial, I’d have to stop 65% of what I’m doing,” Copeland told Inside Edition in 2019.
Televangelist Kenneth Copeland speaks with Inside Edition reporter Lisa Guerrero in 2019. Video screen grab via Inside Edition
These luxury-loving pastors — including Creflo Dollar and Jesse Duplantis — will be doling out extra dough for personal flights on ministry-owned aircraft, according to a tax update released last month. Watchdog organization Trinity Foundation, which monitors religious fraud, reported last week that the Internal Revenue Service ramped up the tax rate for “non-commercial flights on employer-provided aircraft” taken between Jan. 1, 2023, and June 30, 2023.
When taxpayers fly on employer-owned jets for personal reasons, they must include the value of that flight in their gross income. The update shows that taxpayers will need to pay a $52.35 terminal charge for each personal flight — an $8.17 increase from the previous rate — as well as up to $0.28 a mile, depending on the length of the flight.
These changes apply to pastors, too.
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“To the extent that they take personal flights on church-owned private jets, from a tax perspective, those flights will now be slightly more costly to them,” explained Samuel Brunson, an associate dean at Loyola University in Chicago who researches religion and the tax system.
He added that while a tax-exempt organization would typically have to report whether they use such flights on IRS Form 990, churches are exempt from filing 990s, keeping the public in the dark about whether they fly ministry-owned jets for personal use.
That’s where the Trinity Foundation comes in. For decades, president Pete Evans has been tracking ministry-owned jets, taking note when they’re flown for pleasure instead of business. Today, Trinity Foundation staff investigator Barry Bowen keeps daily tabs on televangelists’ private jets, posting screenshots of the flights on the @pastorplanes social media accounts.
