How does the IRS determine which groups are or aren't religions?

Question

So that they can confer/deny tax-exempt status. Do they have a technical set of criteria that must be met? If so, what are they? Or is it a judgement call made on a case-by-case basis? If so, who makes the call?

Answer 1

Let me first say that I am neither an attorney or tax professionial.

This I can tell you however. Federal Tax rules are established in a document called US Tax Code.

The irony however is, the Tax Code is about 12,000 pages, while the Bible is only about 1,100. Good luck