IRS complaint targets Detroit mayoral candidate Kinloch and his church over $1.3M home

The $1.3 million suburban home owned by Detroit mayoral candidate and megachurch pastor Solomon Kinloch Jr. is now the subject of an Internal Revenue Service complaint that alleges his church’s tax-exempt status may have been violated. 

Highland Park activist Robert Davis, who asked state authorities to investigate the financial dealings behind the Oakland Township house last week, filed a separate complaint with the IRS on Friday. 

The filing argues that Triumph Church, where Kinloch has served as senior pastor since 2003, improperly allowed him to personally profit from a home purchase. Federal law bars churches from using tax-exempt resources to enrich insiders. 

Davis alleges Triumph Church engaged in an “unlawful inurement and private financial benefit to an insider in violation of the Internal Revenue Code for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt religious and church organizations.” 

As Metro Times reported on Sept. 25, Triumph Church purchased the 5,177-square-foot home on Mystic Lane in April 2013 for $841,600. The church financed the deal with a $631,200 mortgage that Kinloch himself signed on the church’s behalf. That left about $210,000 to be paid in cash.

Nine months later, the church sold the same house to Kinloch for the same price. He again financed it with a $631,200 mortgage, leaving another $210,000 gap at closing. Church officials have declined to answer our questions about how the balances were covered. 

The complaint argues that Kinloch reaped significant financial benefits from the sale. He and his wife, Robin, secured an $84,000 loan against the home in January 2014. Nearly a decade later, in March 2023, they obtained a $725,000 revolving-credit mortgage from Community Financial in Plymouth.

Davis says the amount of credit Kinloch was able to draw down exceeds typical loan-to-value ratios. 

“The maximum amount Mr. Kinloch should have been allowed to borrow in March 2023 should have been around $558,000,” the IRS complaint states. “Somehow, Mr. Kinloch was allowed to receive an extra financial benefit of an additional $200,000.”

The IRS prohibits churches from transferring assets to insiders if it results in personal financial gain. The agency’s guidelines state that the prohibition against inurement is “absolute” and is grounds for stripping a nonprofit of its tax-exempt status 

Davis also points to Michigan law, which allows a church to buy a residence for its pastor but requires the church to remain the owner. By selling the home to Kinloch, he argues, Triumph Church broke the law.

“Solomon Kinloch Jr. has substantially benefited financially from Triumph Church’s sale of the Oakland Township property to him,” Davis wrote, pointing to “the number of personal loans and mortgages” that he and his wife “have been able to procure and secure.”

Kinloch has made his leadership of Triumph Church a centerpiece of his campaign for mayor. The church has more than 40,000 members and seven locations, including two in Detroit with long-delinquent water bills. 

Public records show Kinloch also faced at least nine liens between 2006 and 2022, most for delinquent taxes totaling more than $168,000.

Kinloch finished second in the August primary with 17.4% of the vote and will face Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield in the Nov. 4 general election. Sheffield received more than half the votes in the primary. 

Davis said the financial questions surrounding Kinloch’s home speak directly to his credibility as a candidate. 

“He’s made the church a centerpiece of this campaign,” Davis told Metro Times last week. “His track record as the head of that church is relevant. So all the business dealings and transactions are relevant. He’s made them relevant.”

Metro Times is awaiting a response from Kinloch’s campaign and Triumph Church.

Have something to share?

SEND US A NEWS TIP

Featured Local Savings