Why are Religious Institutions automatically tax exempt?
Why are Religious Institutions automatically tax exempt?
Originally posted by Playmaker
As said by Chief Justice Marshall, "That the power to tax involves the power to destroy." Their exempt because if the State or Federal Government doesn't like what a Religious Institution is saying they can simply tax them out of existence.
On the surface this makes sense. But I feel you have religions like Christianity that wield far too much power in the world.
Churches should be taxed for every donation they receive, what they should be allowed to do is use works of charity as tax deductions. eg I donate 1,000 to my local church (I can use that as a deduction for myself), the government gets it's 3rd (or so) in taxes. Then if the church uses donation money to fund a soup line for the homeless, the money spent to fund said service should be tax deductible back to the church.
Originally posted by Playmaker
Can't do much about the world.
Originally posted by Playmaker
As said by Chief Justice Marshall, "That the power to tax involves the power to destroy." Their exempt because if the State or Federal Government doesn't like what a Religious Institution is saying they can simply tax them out of existence.
Our pledge of allegiance is openly religious, every president ever says, "god bless America", and we've only ever elected Christians.
Don't think the church needs protection, but hey, whatever it takes to justify centers of indoctrination getting special treatment.
Originally posted by Robtard
Churches should be taxed for every donation they receive, what they should be allowed to do is use works of charity as tax deductions. eg I donate 1,000 to my local church (I can use that as a deduction for myself), the government gets it's 3rd (or so) in taxes. Then if the church uses donation money to fund a soup line for the homeless, the money spent to fund said service should be tax deductible back to the church.
Originally posted by Robtard
Churches should be taxed for every donation they receive, what they should be allowed to do is use works of charity as tax deductions. eg I donate 1,000 to my local church (I can use that as a deduction for myself), the government gets it's 3rd (or so) in taxes. Then if the church uses donation money to fund a soup line for the homeless, the money spent to fund said service should be tax deductible back to the church.
If you want to tax churches then you need to be fair and tax all not-for-profit organizations. So to use your example for a moment, if instead I didn't donate $1,000 to my local church but instead donated that money to a soul line for the homeless, then the government should tax that as well. Otherwise, you're just punishing religious institutions for being religious.
Originally posted by Rockydonovang
Right, because the government where atheists haven't got a single representative in is going to go on a anti-religion crusade.Our pledge of allegiance is openly religious, every president ever says, "god bless America", and we've only ever elected Christians.
Don't think the church needs protection, but hey, whatever it takes to justify centers of indoctrination getting special treatment.
Give me a reason why churches should be taxed at all. Taxation involves interference by the state. Thomas Jefferson explained it best when he said that church-state separation is not meant to create a religion-free civil society or public sphere. Instead, its purpose is to safeguard our fundamental right to religious freedom, by limiting the regulatory powers of government and by distinguishing between political and religious institutions.
Citation:
Garnett, Richard W. 2015. The Washington Post: Tax exemptions protect religious freedom. We should keep them: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/09/15/religious-tax-exemptions-protect-religious-freedom-we-should-keep-them/?utm_term=.88e0c416997a
Originally posted by BackFire
They should not be tax exempt. Religions are a business now, they make a lot of money. They should all be taxed.
Some of these pastors live in multi-million dollar mansions and drive Bentleys, or more precisely, have a driver that drives them around in their Bentley, that's barely anything, guy's like that are practically scraping by in life
Originally posted by Robtard
Some of these pastors live in multi-million dollar mansions and drive Bentleys, or more precisely, have a driver that drives them around in their Bentley, that's barely anything, guy's like that are practically scraping by in life
Okay. And? I can point to many other churches where they're running on a deficit.
Originally posted by Rockydonovang
Right, because the government where atheists haven't got a single representative in is going to go on a anti-religion crusade.
Here is a list of atheists in US Government:
United States
Rocky Anderson (b. 1951): 2012 Justice Party Presidential Candidate and former mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah[160]
Charles T. Beaird (1922–2006): Republican Party member and newspaper publisher.[161]
Cecil Bothwell (b. 1950): Asheville, North Carolina city council member, who was nearly denied his position because of his atheism.
Lori Lipman Brown (b. 1958): Politician, lobbyist, lawyer, educator, and social worker supporter, Nevada state senator from 1992 to 1994.[162]
Douglas Campbell (b. 1959): Atheist advocate and member of the Green Party of Michigan and of the Godless Americans Political Action Committee.[163] Co-founder, Michigan Godless Americans Political Action Committee.[164] Green Party candidate for governor of Michigan in both 2002 and 2006.
Ernie Chambers (b. 1937): Member of the Nebraska Legislature and civil rights activist.[165]
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938): Lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, best known for defending John T. Scopes in the so-called Monkey Trial.[166][167][168]
Josh Elliott (b. circa 1970): Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives[169]
Sean Faircloth (b. circa 1960): Attorney, served five terms in the Maine Legislature including appointments on the Judiciary and Appropriations Committees.
Barney Frank (b. 1940): U.S. Representative (1981–2013) (D-MA).[170][171]
Thomas Gore (1870–1949): United States Senator (D-OK), from 1907 until 1921 and from 1931 until 1937.[172]
Vincent Hallinan (1896–1992): Lawyer who ran for president of the United States in 1952 under the Progressive Party, the third highest polling candidate in the election.[173]
Jared Huffman (b. 1964): United States Congressman (D-CA) since 2013. He revealed in 2017 that he is a humanist and a non-believer.[174]
Heather Mac Donald (b. 1956): Writer and lawyer, member of the Manhattan Institute and author of The Burden of Bad Ideas: How Modern Intellectuals Misshape Our Society.[175]
Culbert Olson (1876–1962): Politician and Governor of California from 1939 to 1943.[176]
Pete Stark (b. 1931): U.S. Representative (1973–2013) (D-CA), the first openly atheist member of Congress.[177]
Eddie Tabash: Lawyer and atheist activist and debater.[178]
Jesse Ventura (b. 1951): Former Governor of Minnesota, veteran, wrestler, actor, and talk show host.[179][180][181]
George Will (b. 1941): newspaper columnist and political commentator[182][183]
Alan Wolfe (b. 1951): Political scientist and sociologist, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life.[184]
Andrew Zwicker (b. 1964): Member of the New Jersey General Assembly; scientist and educator, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.[185]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atheists_in_politics_and_law#United_States
Originally posted by dadudemon
On the topic, I think the FairTax would take care of this and I think churches should not be exempt from taxes at all.
Been reading on the FairTax, it sounds too good to be true and I can't see it ever being implemented as it doesn't benefit the rich all that much. There's a reason why the tax code is written to be nearly indecipherable by anyone except lawyers.