Religions Should Be Taxed

[Hypersion]

Religions are a non-profit organization that is why they don't pay any taxes.

[maat55]

My initial reaction is that I actually think that losing their tax exempt status would further separate church and state. Government would treat it like any other organization.

Not that I church and state are close to being separate, nor do I necessarily believe that we should take away exemptions for none profits...

edited to sound nicer..

You couldn't be further from the truth, The only reason churches don't back political candidates is because of their tax free status and believe me they want to bad. Churches have to restrain their political views. If they every lose their exemption, they will rule politics.

Personally, I wish they would, but not at the expense of the good deeds they can do with the money the government would piss into the wind.

[Exile]

Churches and religious organizations should not be exempted from paying taxes. Directly or indirectly, they involve themselves in politics by exhorting and organizing their members into taking certain political positions and to lobby their elected representatives into passing laws that agreeable to these dogmas, such as demanding the teaching of "creationism", outlawing abortion, and otherwise imposing their beliefs on others. Why should they get the equivalent of a government subsidy for doing this?

[Troyrb]

I don't see why churches can be tax exempt. Is it just because they do some charity work? Well I know a lot of churches that don't do hardly any charity but just build bigger more elaborate churches every year. A lot of these churches spend more on handing out religious material then they do food to the poor. I'm not saying that they all do this. There are some churches that do very good work with the poor but that still don't mean they should be 100% tax exempt. The only thing that should be tax exempt are the exact dollars they spend on charity. Just like when individuals donate.

[Troyrb]

Why should they get the equivalent of a government subsidy for doing this?

AMEN, Exile

[momof1in150]

Churches are tax exempt because they have a nonprofit classification. Show me a church that actually makes money. Our church struggles each year to pay the bills and support the mission work that we provide to the community, state, country and world. You might complain about churches and what they do but it is the churches/synagogues that are on the scene of disasters providing relief to those who need it.

It is no different then your favorite charity.

I hate the fact that I am even responding the a trex post because all of his posts are to cause a rift. Check out all of this posts that he starts and they are full of controversy.

[danfrain]

Show me a church that actually makes money. There are some, I'm sure. Jim Bakker, Jimmy (I have [sob, sob sinned.....) Swaggart, et al, come to mind.

Our church struggles each year to pay the bills and support the mission work that we provide to the community, state, country and world. I bet.

You might complain about churches and what they do but it is the churches/synagogues that are on the scene of disasters providing relief to those who need it. AMEN!

[Troyrb]

It's mission work as much to bring people into the church as it is to help feed people? If it was only to help feed needy people I would be all for tax exceptions but that is not usually the case. I know from past experiences with mission work that it is mainly for bring people to the church. I even know of some church homeless shelters that won't keep people if they don't also go to their church services and except their beliefs.

[assistingyou]

Religions and charitable institutions per se are not taxed. They will be tax only if they perform some proprietary functions or activities.

[noppenbd]

This whole thread makes no sense.

The most common complaint about high taxes is that the money is spent on entitlement programs (welfare, social security, etc) and that the government is a terribly inefficient middleman for redistributing wealth in this way. In the view of proponents of low taxes we should leave the money in the hands of the earners and let them donate it directly to these worthy causes.

If you take away the tax exempt status for churches (and all charitable organizations??) you would reduce the amount of giving that the church can do for the poor (homeless shelters, soup kitchens, Habitat for Humanity, mission work). This would increase the burden for the entitlement programs. So you would cause an overall increase in the tax burden.

[momof1in150]

It's mission work as much to bring people into the church as it is to help feed people? If it was only to help feed needy people I would be all for tax exceptions but that is not usually the case. I know from past experiences with mission work that it is mainly for bring people to the church. I even know of some church homeless shelters that won't keep people if they don't also go to their church services and except their beliefs.

None of our Mission work is in our church. We do a soup kitchen at another church, cloth children in our town with no winter coats, provide food baskets for those in our town, go to Nicaragua, Kentucky & Maine annually to help the poor in those areas. It has nothing to do with bringing people into our church, it has to do with what we are taught to do - take care of others.