No Taxation Marcus and Joni Lamb are the proud owners
of Daystar, one of the biggest Christian TV networks in the world.
Their platform reaches a massive audience of Christian viewers around the globe with
an assortment of religious-based content, including sermons from select celebrity televangelists
like Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland.
The Lambs have built Daystar into a multi-million dollar television empire that regularly rakes
in gobs of cash.
But despite the huge profits, the owners of Daystar do not pay taxes.
How could that be?
How could a TV network that very obviously profits from their business activities get
away with keeping all that money for themselves?
A Daystar is Born The Lambs have a long and storied history
in the realm of Christian television.
Their first taste of the industry came back in the 1980s.
Marcus was an ordained Bishop with the Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee.
He had founded a company called The Word of God Fellowship—a move that would eventually
help him and his wife, Joni, start the Daystar Television Network.
But before that happened, the couple packed their bags and moved down to Montgomery, Alabama,
intending to launch a Christian TV channel.
In 1984, they did just that.
They founded the first full-power Christian television station in Alabamian history.
They put their all into that little TV station for the next five years, and in 1990, their
hard work finally paid off.
They sold the station to the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the single largest religious television
network in the entire world.
Rather than rest on their laurels, the Lambs got back to work on yet another television
station, this time heading west to Dallas, Texas.
They acquired a previously defunct station, and in 1993, it laid the bricks for what would
eventually evolve into Daystar.
The Lambs were gifted a generous sum from fellow Christian television staple Kenneth
Copeland in 1996, which they used to help purchase an additional station out in Colorado.
Their very own Christian TV network, now equipped with two different stations in Texas and Colorado,
was finally up and running, and on New Year's Eve of 1997, the Daystar brand was officially
born.
The company moved their operations into a 32,000 square foot production facility and
got straight to work building the network up to the monumental heights they've reached
today.
Daystar Difference You're probably wondering what makes Daystar
different from all the other big-name televangelists we always hear about.
Well, it's important to understand what Daystar is to comprehend its place in mainstream religious
television.
When we talk about people like Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, and Creflo Dollar, those
are actual preachers.
They give sermons on Sunday mornings like any other run-of-the-mill pastor; they just
do it in front of thousands of people in massive megachurches and on national TV.
On the other hand, Daystar is not a part of a Christian ministry in the same vein as those
famous televangelists.
They are a standalone television network that hosts and broadcasts content produced by guys
like Osteen and Copeland.
That's not to say the Lambs don't have a clear Christian message they're trying to send through
their programming.
In fact, in addition to the televised sermons they regularly broadcast, Daystar also has
a stable of original content produced in-house.
There are 8 original Daystar shows in all, five of which are hosted by members of the
Lamb family.
Marcus Lamb himself has dabbled in the world of televangelism as well, and some of his
sermons get air time on the channel from time to time.
However, it's important to remember that Daystar is a network, not a ministry.
They sell air-time to content creators looking for a platform to distribute their message
to the 2 billion potential viewers the channel reaches across the US, Canada, Europe, and
even Israel.
More on that later, though.
Despite the obvious for-profit nature of Daystar's work, they can skate by untaxed because they
are officially labeled a "church" by the IRS.
By law, religious entities and places of worship are not subject to the same tax requirements
as regular old businesses.
That's how televangelists get away with not paying taxes on the millions of dollars they
collect every Sunday.
Nevertheless, from the very beginning, the IRS has given Daystar the distinction of tax-exempt
status because of their religious activities.
To help justify the tax exemptions they enjoy, Daystar claims to conduct religious ceremonies
such as weddings and baptisms.
If true, this would lend some legitimacy to the claim that they're a church.
Whether or not those ceremonies ever take place is not exactly clear, though.
Former Daystar employees have said that they were never once aware of any such religious
ceremony taking place at the company.
So while we don't know for sure if Daystar participates in these religious rituals, it's
probably not as often as the Lamb's insist.
Raking it in Regardless of what you may think, the network
receives those all-important tax incentives all the same.
That's certainly good news for them because they're raking in cash thanks to their program's
popular Christian content.
One of Daystar's primary sources of revenue comes from the air time they sell to televangelists,
many of whom you've probably heard of.
Celebrity preachers with huge followings, guys like Osteen, T.D. Jakes and Copeland
pay up to get themselves on Daystar, which calls itself the fastest-growing Christian
TV network in the world.
The Lambs and the rest of the top Daystar brass collect hefty sums for the valuable
TV time they supply to these millionaire preachers, but that's not the only way they make their
money.
Daystar also thrives on the massive donations they collect year in and year out from their
global audience.
The network brings in an estimated $35 million every year solely off the back of viewer donations.
That's a lot of cash—a lot of untaxed cash at that.
Because they receive those tax credits mentioned earlier, the amount of money Daystar puts
in the bank is a whole lot more than the rest of us could even dream of.
TV Station or Church?
They're able to dodge those pesky federal taxes so successfully because they play the
game well.
The tax legislation currently on the books has some vague language regarding what constitutes
a church in the federal government's eyes.
The interpretation of these laws is important, though, because there is technically a legal
distinction between a "church," which Daystar identifies as, and a "religious non-profit"
organization.
Religious non-profits receive the same tax breaks as churches, but they have to tell
the IRS what they're spending their money on.
The same is true for other non-profit entities like NPR.
Churches, on the other hand, are not required to make any such disclosure.
They are permitted by law to keep their financial particulars out of public records, which makes
it extremely difficult for any curious members of the public - or the IRS itself - to keep
an eye on how Daystar uses all the money it's bringing in.
But there doesn't seem to be any legal safety net in place to catch freeloaders who call
themselves churches.
Take it from Ron Wright, a tax assessor in Tarrant County, Texas, the home of Daystar.
As he puts it," a church is a church if they say it's a church.
And if it's a church, then it's tax-exempt."
The 14 Points Even though it feels like the IRS isn't even
trying and anybody could start a tax-exempt church—which they can—there are some guidelines.
The IRS uses 14 rules to determine whether a particular organization can be considered
a "church" in the eyes of the law.
Those rules and regulations are as follows: the organization must be "a distinct legal
existence."
They must possess a specific "creed and form of worship" that their members engage in.
They must have their own government that oversees the operations of the institution, and that
government must enforce a "formal code of doctrine and discipline."
The organization must have a history of religious activity and must not be directly associated
with a separate church or denomination, and there must be ordained ministers on staff.
There must be a church "literature" that is unique to them.
They must have established areas designed for worship.
They must regularly host religious congregations, religious services, and Sunday school for
young children.
They must also conduct some form of education or preparation for their pastors.
That's a lot of rules that organizations must follow to be legally recognized as an official
church.
Seems pretty legit, right?
There's just one problem: the IRS is not nearly as strict in enforcing these 14 requirements
as you might hope or expect.
An institution doesn't even have to align with all of the 14 categories to gain church
status.
The IRS itself makes it clear that they believe it's nearly impossible to define a church.
They say, "the determination of what constitutes a church is inherently unquantifiable."
Basically, anything can be considered a church.
So although they went through the process of identifying 14 essential aspects of a church,
they don't follow through on enforcing their own rules.
If you want to be a church, the IRS says you can be a church.
In other words, if you don't want to pay taxes or share your financial records with the rest
of the world, you don't have to!
So Daystar doesn't.
IRS Declarations Why doesn't the government do something about
these sketchy so-called churches?
Well, back in 2007, they tried to.
An investigation led by US Senator Chuck Grassley looked into the financial dealings of six
specific Christian ministries that each enjoy the tax-exempt status we've been talking about.
Among the ministries investigated were those led by famed televangelists like Dollar and
Copeland, who were not keen on helping the government in their efforts.
The purpose of this whole operation was to find out if these churches were misusing the
copious amounts of tax-free money they were collecting from their congregations.
The investigation lasted four years, but it found little information that could be used
to prosecute any of the involved ministries or lead to meaningful changes in the tax laws.
Since Senator Grassley's investigation, there has not been another government-sanctioned
effort to crack down on churches trying to exploit the weak tax legislation currently
in place.
Why is that?
Can't the IRS just audit the organizations they suspect of wrongdoing?
Unfortunately, their hands are somewhat tied by the confusing and unclear language of the
law.
You see, for a church audit to be performed by the IRS, a "high-ranking Treasury official"
must sign off on it first.
What exactly is a high-ranking Treasury official, and what rank is high enough?
Nobody knows.
Until that point is cleared up and the law is made a little more specific, the IRS can't
get clearance to conduct meaningful investigations into organizations like Daystar.
In the meantime, I'm sure the Lambs are a-okay doing business as usual and pocketing all
that untaxed cash like they always have.
"Charitable Donations" To Daystar's credit, they have made something
of a concerted effort to redirect some of the cash they take in toward charitable funds
and generous causes.
In fact, according to Marcus Lamb, the company - excuse me, the "church" - donated a whopping
$30 million over five years in the mid-2000s.
Pretty generous on the part of the well-to-do TV network, wouldn't you say?
That pretty much makes up for all that not paying taxes stuff, right?
Hold your horses.
Thanks to some excellent reporting by the folks at NPR, who dug into Daystar's philanthropic
history, we know that Lamb was grossly exaggerating the network's charitable donations.
According to NPR's John Burnett, the actual sum that Daystar gave to various charitable
efforts was closer to $9.7 million, and that was over six years, not five.
It's obvious Lamb and company hoped that some positive PR on the back of such large charitable
donations would distract folks from focusing on the more troubling aspects of Daystar's
financial practices, like not paying taxes and hiding their records from the IRS.
But what they claimed about their charitable giving simply wasn't true.
In addition to the bloated $30 million they lied about, it's also a little questionable
whether the recipients of Daystar's donations were worthy of the money.
For example, Daystar gave a total of $433,000 of untaxed funds to Oral Roberts University.
What makes that significant?
Well, aside from being Ken Copeland's alma mater, it's also the school attended by three
of the Lambs' children during this six-year window of giving.
That's more than a little convenient.
But wait, there's more.
More than $50,000 went to the Lamb children's high school, $296,000 to the Lamb family church,
$24,000 to Marcus Lamb's alma mater, Lee University, and nearly $22,000 donated to Lynn Haven Nursing
Home in Georgia, which was the assisted living facility that Marcus' father lived in before
his passing.
So while Daystar did donate nearly $10 million, it's not like it was all going towards feeding
starving children.
There are obvious connections between the owners of Daystar and the recipients of the
network's donations.
Daystar in Israel Daystar has gotten itself into several precarious
PR situations over the years that go beyond its shady finances.
For instance, back in 2006, controversy erupted after Daystar became the very first foreign
Christian television network to be given a government-approved broadcast license in Israel.
This announcement was not received well by Jewish communities in Israel and the United
States.
They saw Daystar's move to Israel as some ploy to convert Jewish people to Christianity—a
claim wasn't without good cause, either.
Daystar broadcasted a suspiciously large amount of Messianic Jewish content through Israel.
For those who don't know, Messianic Jews believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, which aligns
with Christianity and goes directly against what traditional Orthodox Jews believe.
Messianic Jews also preach the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, whereas Orthodox
Jews do not recognize the New Testament as valid.
The only thing that differentiates Messianic Jews from your average Christian is that Messianic
Judaism integrates certain elements and traditions of the Jewish faith into their belief system.
Generally, though, Messianic Jews are considered Christians.
You can understand, then, why members of the Jewish community were concerned about Daystar
choosing to broadcast that particular message to the people of Israel.
As a result of this controversy, an Israeli cable provider dropped Daystar from their
programming, which led to the Lambs bringing that provider to the Israeli Supreme Court
over religious discrimination.
After two years, Daystar got its way, and the cable provider put Daystar back in its
lineup of channels.
Daystar's troubles in Israel were far from over.
In 2019, the network's studio in Jerusalem was burned to the ground in an alleged arson
attack.
One of the contractors overseeing renovations on the facility claims to have seen the perpetrator
fleeing the scene on one of the security cameras set up at the site.
Marcus has vowed not to let this unfortunate incident stop Daystar from continuing its
work in Israel.
The Unfaithful Lamb While Marcus certainly seems faithful to Daystar's
mission, he was a little less faithful in his marriage.
In November of 2010, Marcus and his wife, Joni, made an appearance on one of Daystar's
main programs and admitted to the network's many millions of viewers that he had an extramarital
affair several years prior.
It was a shocking declaration from a guy like Lamb, who preaches the sanctity of marriage
on a daily basis.
Still, his motivations went beyond simply getting the affair off his chest.
Marcus explained that three individuals were blackmailing him and his wife with his affair
during this bizarre broadcast.
His blackmailers were seeking $7 million, but instead of giving in to them, Marcus chose
to get out ahead of the story and explain himself directly to the people.
He not only made the public admission on his network, he and Joni even appeared on shows
like "Good Morning America" and "Dr. Phil," detailing the state of their marriage and
how they had successfully worked through Marcus' affair with the help of counseling.
Not long after this whole ordeal went public, three separate lawsuits were filed against
the network, all of which were by former Daystar employees.
A former Daystar executive sued the company because of the emotional pain that her knowledge
of Marcus' affair had caused her over the years.
Another lawsuit came from a Daystar producer who believed she was wrongfully terminated
for dating a male co-worker.
The last one came from an ex-employee claiming to have experienced harassment and defamation
on the part of the Lambs during the employee's time with Daystar.
All three lawsuits were eventually dropped, and while there was a reported settlement
agreed to in private, none of the involved parties were officially compensated for their
disputes against Daystar.
PPP Jet The network made recent headlines in connection
to the government's Paycheck Protection Program.
Daystar applied for one of those precious PPP loans and received $3.9 million to pay
its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just two weeks after receiving the loan, however, Daystar bought a 1997 Gulfstream V jet because,
as we all know, televangelists love their private jets.
The timing was obviously questionable, and there was widespread suspicion that the network
had used the money loaned to them to make the expensive purchase.
The Lambs denied these rumors, stating that the company bought the jet with their own
funds and that the plane was only used to conduct the network's business.
Inside Edition exposed this lie proving the Lambs used the jet for personal matters on
at least two occasions.
They had the Instagram posts from the Lamb family vacation to prove it.
Marcus insisted these "vacations" were work-related.
Once Inside Edition's investigation put Daystar in hot water, the network paid back the $4
million loan with interest.
But was this just them covering up their tracks yet again?
It's hard not to be suspicious of the multi-million dollar television behemoth when it seems everything
they do is shrouded in some secrecy.
They don't pay taxes.
They don't report their finances to the IRS.
They reportedly have a history of mistreating employees.
They give viewer donations to their friends and family, and on top of it all, they've
shown a willingness to lie to the public should it serve their purposes.
The IRS may never put Daystar's problematic behavior in check.
But we're sure the Lambs are perfectly content to keep things the way they are until it is.
Click to watch one of these next videos!