hello in this video I hope to clarify some of the complexities of working with what I call these lawful structures of a PMA a church and a trust so I will explain each one of these structures and then describe how it can be used in connection with the other structures so let's get into it we'll start with a PMA which stands for private membership Association and I have a whole video about that I encourage you to check it out for more information about a PMA essentially it's an agreement between people between living men and women to engage in a contract or a compact or an agreement to interact in a certain way what this type of agreement does is take the interaction that the people are having out of the public realm and into the private jurisdiction and this eliminates the need for Licensing and Regulatory oversight now it has come to my awareness that some people are considering a PMA a tax shelter that is not my understanding I would not recommend leaning on a PMA as a tax shelter it simply takes the business Arrangement or the exchange out of the public jurisdiction and into the private jurisdiction if if you are using Federal Reserve notes for that exchange it would be considered a taxable event and I suggest redeeming treasury notes as lawful money to shift that Dynamic but that's a different topic and there's a whole another video about that as well so check that out in addition to eliminating the need for Licensing and Regulatory oversight the other reason I really like a PMA is because it gives you an opportunity to get really clear and specific about the parameters and the details of the expectations and exchange that you're engaging in with the members of the private membership Association another benefit of creating a PMA is it creates a distinct entity and that can be helpful in relating with these other lawful structures for example a PMA could technically be a trustee of a private Express trust now this might be complicated because the PMA would be made up of many members however it could have a board and the board of the PMA could be considered a trustee of a trust another example is that a PMA could be a beneficiary of a trust especially maybe a charitable trust so that would mean that all of the members of the PMA are the beneficiaries of the Trust In addition to whatever other beneficiaries one wanted to include a PMA could also interact with a church structure in that it could be the container within which the church holds its congregation so if you establish a church and then you want to define the nature of membership in the church through a private membership Association you could also do that so I really like a PMA it's a handy dandy lawful structure that fulfills several needs for me and interacts easily with these other lawful structures which honestly have a little more gravy toas than a PMA so let's look at a church now the first thing to understand about the lawful structure of a church is that according to the IRS it will only receive tax exemption if it meets specific and may I say rather stringent criteria and it is articulated very clearly on the IRS website if if you meet these criteria you can receive automatic tax exemption first of all your organization has to claim to be a church or a convention or Association of churches including mosques temples and other houses of worship your organization must have a mission statement and must be formally organized as a distinct legal entity I would say lawful structure and that just means that you have official documentation in place articulating what it is that you are doing your organization has to have a distinct again legal existence and religious history a recognized Creed form of worship and literature of its own a definite and distinct ecclesiastical government including a formal code of Doctrine and discipline an organization of ordained ministers selected after completing prescribed courses of study and established places of worship with regular congregations religious services and or religious instruction for m mbers so this designation requires quite an organizational structure as you can see and here we'll get into the tax status piece a little deeper so it seems like forever a 501c3 was like the Holy Grail of tax status right this is the traditional nonprofit status for churches and other nonprofit organizations 501c3 tax deductible tax exempt and here we can see some of the requirements for this tax status according to the IRS now I don't know about you but reading tax code is not like the most exciting thing for me so I'm just going to jump to the couple of pieces that really stand out here for me one is that earnings of the organization cannot inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual so if you actually have a for-profit Enterprise attempting to align yourself with a nonprofit status just doesn't make sense and the other piece that really stands out here to me is the limitation on contributing to political campaigns so churches who have a 501c3 status are technically not allowed to share political perspective in their services nor make contributions to any political campaigns and while that kind of makes sense from the perspective of the separation of church and state it definitely is a limitation on the actions that a church organization can take so that is just something to be aware of now while any number of organiz ation s can file for a 501c3 nonprofit status if they meet these requirements many people are turning to this other option of um a 508 c1a tax status now one thing to keep in mind as we review subsection 508 is that this is a continuation from the 501 so the terms of a 508 are referring back to a 501 the huge difference between 501c3 and 508 8 c1a is that a 501c3 is applied for and granted by the IRS so many people who are interested in creating free churches temples and Ministries are leaning into this 508 c1a tax code which seems on the surface like it offers so much more freedom and flexibility and in fact it does because you don't apply you just assume this tax status so whereas you need to apply and be approved for 501c3 as long as you are acting in alignment with the requirements you can assume a 508 c1a tax status and when people read this they get really excited so there's a mandatory exception for churches their integrated auxiliaries and conventions or assoc Association of churches amazing so the 508 c1a feels like the Holy Grail of tax exempt status when we stumble upon it and we read oh my goodness mandatory exceptions for churches their integrated auxiliaries and conventions or Association of churches yes I'm starting a church I'm opening my Ministry 508 c1a taxfree boom however in that excitement we can get distracted from or forget the definition of a church and really this is referring back to the irs's definition of a church and just to review what they're looking for is little literature of your own regular congregations a distinct legal or lawful existence distinct religious history regular religious Services established places of worship organization of ordained ministers formal code of Doctrine and discipline recognized Creed and form of worship schools for the preparation of its members definite and distinct ecclesiastical government that's the internal operating structure of the organization Sunday schools for the religious instruction of the young or maybe that would be a Saturday school or a Wednesday school membership not associated with any other church or denomination that's a limitation ordained ministers are selected after completing prescribed courses of study so basically what they are looking for is religion they are looking for an established religion and of course you are welcome to create your own religion however it would need to adhere to the guidelines in order for it to be considered a church in the eyes of the IRS and therefore be deserving of the tax exempt status so on the one hand you are totally free to create your own Temple or Ministry in whatever way you see fit however don't expect it to be a tax shelter for you unless you are adhering to the irs's requirements as I mentioned before you can give the Church organization at PMA to contain and Define the congregation you could give the church a private Express irrevocable trust or a charitable trust to manage the resources of the church and navigate Commerce for the church organization so you can see in this way a church can be an umbrella organization you could establish and found a church give it a PMA to hold its congregation give it a trust to navigate Commerce for it and so those other lawful structures would be held within the structure of the church alternatively a trust could be an umbrella organization and the trust could establish a church that's given a PMA to contain its congregation and then the PMA could become the beneficiaries of the charitable trust now why would you want to establish a trust well a trust can act a vessel trusts have been called natural persons as opposed to a legal person which is like a corporation natural person is a term that's usually used to refer to living men and women and imuse a private expressed trust with the same capabilities as people so this is why a trust can create a PMA or establish a church or open a bank account and then the organ oranization of the trust operates these other entities instead of an individual so this is an excellent strategy for longterm organizational structures if you are creating a legacy that will live on Beyond you and you want to go ahead and set up the structure to hold that now a trust may be your best option so just to review these three lawful structures and how they interact both a church church and a trust could act as an umbrella organization a PMA could serve either of these organizations in distinct Ways by creating a container and a private agreement among the members if properly established a church can provide tax exemption and could be founded within a trust or given a charitable trust to manage resources for it remember a PMA could function as a trustee of a trust or perhaps more usefully beneficiary a PMA can Define membership in the congregation of a church or membership in a health and wellness practice or community supported agriculture or other Farm to people food initiatives any of these lawful structures could acquire an EIN and open a bank account and regardless of which structures you choose I strongly recommend redeeming and demanding lawful money in every banking interaction and to learn more about Banking and lawful money go ahead and help yourself to the outer sovereignty starter kit I'll link it in the description to the video it goes in depth into jurisdiction public and private um how to redeem lawful money and why that works and also you get a free PMA template in the outer sovereignty starter kit so go ahead and help yourself as your next step and I will see you in the next video blessings on your way