Tax Exemption For Churches In Usa

[Guest halwes]

Any thoughts on this?

[Cracked]

I think people should get a tax refund for donating to ExC. I know it's not a church but it was a thought

[Lycorth]

Churches should be taxed like everyone else. Not only is it wrong to give them a free ride to spread their filth, but then we'd see a true test of the Xian faith in America. We'd see if Xians really loved their churches enough to funnel massive amounts of cash into them to relieve the tax load.

 

Of course, most would crumble under the financial pressure

[Jun]

All religions recieve considerable tax exemptions here in OZ too.

[Vigile]

Taxing churches would be problematic with the Seperation clause. Letting the IRS sift through church records would tear down the wall of seperation. Personal freedoms in the US should be given priority over what some percieve as fairness IMO.

[Dhampir]

Fair enough then. What about people who's entire income comes solely from church donations? I think if we're going to leave churches untaxed, then no amount of money should change hands, except through tax exempt charitable initiatives.

[Mike D]

Taxing churches would be problematic with the Seperation clause. Letting the IRS sift through church records would tear down the wall of seperation.

You think? I guess I don't see it this way, as long as the government isn't endorsing any religion I think they could use the IRS oversight.

 

I guess I see church as a for-profit business just like any other business (of course they don't call it that but Christianity alone is a multi-billion dollar business), especially with the introduction of the "megachurch" model and the many religious media empires (i.e. TBN). And they are structured just like any other corporate entity with boards of directors and company... er church, management. Some of these religious entities rake in net income of hundreds of millions a year, much of which doesn't benefit anyone except church "management", who often indulge themselves in lavish lifestyles of luxury homes and cars, private jets, etc.

 

Anyway on the one hand I feel if people are stupid enough to give money to these organizations so Jesus can afford to bless the pastor with a new Lexus or a vacation condo in Maui, that's their business. But don't expect me to allow them a tax deduction which I don't get, plus the burden of paying extra taxes to make up for the tax shortfall. And especially when often times church revenues are not used to help people, and in some cases even used to fund activities which are hateful and oppressive in nature (i.e. Fred Phelps anyone)? I don't know, personally I think giving chruches tax-exempt status is archaic and out of date, and no longer complies with the spirit of why they were given tax-exempt status in the first place. So I guess you know where I stand on this issue

[Lycorth]

Very good points, Vigile, but I still have to cry "unfair" at the way some religions get preferential status. One law for all, I say.

 

So long as the government isn't endorsing any view on religion, I say let them have at it. I always enjoy watching two evil monsters duke it out

 

Either all religions get tax-free status or none of them get it, I say.

[HoustonHorn]

A little bit of trivia for you.

 

At the last church I was officially a member of I was on a committee that was supposed to get people in the church involved in elections. But we couldn't come out and suggest who to vote for because if a church endorses a candidate then they risk losing their tax-exempt status.

 

As far as the original posting, I agree with the intent of tax-exempt status for churches but think that it shouldn't necessarily apply across the board. If money is going to help charities and that sort of thing I don't feel it should be taxed. If the money in the offering plate is going to buy Joel Olsteen another Lexus then yes it should be taxed.

[KenneyVTX]

I see VAT as a solution for this. I don't care how holy you are, you still need toilet paper. The consuption model would eliminate alot of the implementation problems of our current granduated system.

[Vigile]

Fair enough then. What about people who's entire income comes solely from church donations? I think if we're going to leave churches untaxed, then no amount of money should change hands, except through tax exempt charitable initiatives.

 

I'm pretty sure that pastors et al are required to file and are taxed like the rest of us.

[LosingMyReligion]

I think churches should be taxed, that way we could see all of them decline.

Where I live there is literally a church on every street corner. If they were forced to pay taxes we could see this urban blight dissappear.

[Amethyst]

I would agree that churches are essentially a business in America. Religion acts like an industry, it's just not labelled as such because then you'd have lawsuits demanding proof that their product (god) is real, and then the government would have to get involved.

 

So I think that yes, they should be taxed unless the donations are actually going to the homeless or something. But if the donations are being used to improve church property, for example, or to buy the pastor a new car, then they should be taxed.