Just about a year ago, I invited Mr. Paul Streckfus, the EO expert, to weigh in on the 501(c)(4) Texas gated communities joust bubbling up in Tax Court. Well, Mira Vista Homeowners Association, Inc., T. C. Memo. 2025-102, filed 10/6/25, concludes that if everybody can’t go in, no 501(c)(4) treatment, despite however many other of these enclaves have previously received the nod.

For backstory, see my blogposts “Common Good, All In,” 9/25/24, and “Taking Supplements,” 1/28/25.

Judge Christian N. (“Speedy”) Weiler says that hosting charity golf matches in their affiliated country club (even nonresidents allowed), private security, and “cooperation with local government, including the City of Fort Worth, relating to water usage, garbage and recycling collections, streetlight maintenance, and other general access to the Mira Vista development,” T. C. Memo. 2025-102, at p. 2, isn’t enough.

“While ‘the IRS has been something less than fully successful in establishing the precise limits of a Section 501(c)(4) exemption,’ the prevailing logic courts have embraced when addressing this matter is ‘that an organization that operates for the exclusive benefit of its members does not serve a ‘community’ as that term relates to the broader concept of social welfare.’ Flat Top Lake Ass’n, Inc. v. United States, 868 F.2d 108, 111 (4th Cir. 1989). T. C. Memo. 2025-102, at p. 7.

The Miras argue that public benefit, rather than public access or use, is the determining factor of a section 501(c)(4) exemption. They claim the general public receives a benefit through its efforts to benefit the residents and guests of the Mira Vista development. They claim these benefits arise from the existence of several facilities and services, including but not limited to a fishing lake, a dock, a playground, outdoor restrooms, physical access to events hosted by the Country Club, and a private patrol service.

These public benefits, says Judge Speedy Weiler, if any, are incidental, not principal as the law requires. The lake and the adjoining recreational venues are primarily for the benefit of the Miras; and like the rest of the grounds they are not generally accessible to the public. In accordance with Mira’s bylaws and rules, the gates are opened only for members, residents, and guests of each with the sole exception of those charitable events hosted by the country club. Even when the public is permitted entry to attend the country club’s charitable events, however, the facilities listed are not a part of, nor are they intended for, those events.

Judge Speedy Weiler points out that Section 528 is sufficient Congressional largesse, T. C. Memo. 2025-102, at p. 1, footnote 2.