Are televangelists and megachurch pastors required to disclose salaries under US nonprofit law?
Executive summary
Federal nonprofit tax rules require most charities to file IRS Form 990, which publicly reports top employees’ compensation (Form 990 disclosure is the primary source for many salary revelations) [1] [2]. However, increasingly aggressive state and local pay-transparency laws require employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings or on request — rules that apply to many employers but do not by themselves change the federal Form 990 filing rules for churches and some religious organizations [3] [4] [5].
1. What federal nonprofit law actually requires: tax forms and public disclosure
Most public charities must file IRS Form 990, which includes schedules that disclose certain officers’ and highest-paid employees’ compensation; watchdogs and lists of highly paid ministry leaders rely on those filings [2] [1]. CharityWatch and MinistryWatch cite Form 990s when documenting lavish salaries in televangelism and ministry executives; those filings are the “financial disclosure” watchdogs point to as the cornerstone of public oversight [1] [2]. Available sources do not mention a separate federal statute that specifically forces televangelists to publish their pay beyond the Form 990 requirement [1] [2].
2. Churches, religious exemptions, and the limits of disclosure
Reporting rules are complicated by the special status of houses of worship: available sources note limited public information about church finances and difficulties committees face when determining exact salaries because some churches provide little disclosure [1]. Sources do not provide a comprehensive map of which religious organizations are exempt from Form 990 filing; they emphasize that limited disclosure makes it hard for oversight committees to determine exact pay [1]. In practice, watchdogs have used whatever Form 990s are available to trace multi‑million-dollar compensation packages for some televangelists [6] [7].
3. State and local pay‑transparency laws changing the hiring landscape
Since 2024–2025 many states and cities enacted pay‑transparency laws that require employers to post salary ranges or provide pay information on request; these laws apply to employers generally and have proliferated across jurisdictions [3] [4] [5]. By 2025 at least 14 states had enacted such laws and jurisdictions keep adding rules [4] [5]. The new regime focuses primarily on job postings and hiring practices — not on retroactive public disclosure of an individual nonprofit leader’s historical compensation [3] [5].
4. How these two tracks intersect for televangelists and megachurch pastors
Two separate disclosure regimes matter: (a) nonprofit tax filings (Form 990) that can reveal top-paid staff when charities file them, and (b) pay‑transparency employment laws that require posting salary ranges for advertised positions. Watchdogs use Form 990 data to compile lists of highly paid ministry executives and to flag potential abuses [2] [1]. Meanwhile, pay‑transparency laws affect future job ads and hiring — they do not automatically force churches to publish past years’ payrolls unless those churches are already subject to required filings [3] [5] [2].
5. What watchdogs and critics say — and what they use to prove it
Investigations into televangelist pay have repeatedly leaned on available Form 990s and compensation studies; critics point to multi‑million‑dollar packages revealed in filings and to questionable internal processes for setting compensation [6] [7]. CharityWatch documented both the difficulty of obtaining full financial transparency from churches and the use of Form 990s where available to demonstrate lavish salaries [1]. Those reports show that disclosure — when it exists — produces the evidence that spurs public scrutiny [1] [6].
6. Practical takeaway: when salary must be disclosed and when it may stay private
If a ministry is a public charity required to file Form 990, top compensation will generally be available through that filing and watchdog compilations [2] [1]. If a religious organization is not required to file or claims an exemption, available sources say public information can be sparse and watchdogs struggle to determine exact pay [1]. Separately, employers (including religious employers who are covered by state laws) must comply with state and local pay‑transparency rules about salary ranges in job postings — a forward‑looking obligation that does not by itself unseal historical payrolls [3] [5] [4].
7. Limits, disputes and unanswered questions
Available sources document both the Form 990 route and the new wave of pay‑transparency statutes, but they do not provide a single, definitive rulebook on which specific churches are exempt or how every jurisdiction treats religious employers — those details vary and require case‑by‑case legal analysis [1] [3] [5]. Sources do not mention a comprehensive federal law that changes church filing obligations beyond the existing tax‑exempt reporting framework [4]. For anyone seeking a definitive determination about a particular televangelist or megachurch, the record suggests checking that ministry’s Form 990 (if filed) and the relevant state/local pay‑transparency rules where the employer operates [2] [3].
Bottom line: federal nonprofit tax filings (Form 990) are the primary public mechanism that has exposed televangelist and megachurch pay [2] [1]. A second, newer layer of state and local pay‑transparency laws is reshaping how salary information must be posted for jobs going forward — but those laws don’t uniformly compel retrospective publication of every pastor’s historical pay [3] [5].