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Religion today is more of a business than anything else. Having them tax-exempt lets them build gigantic castles and their successful priests driving jaguars. Should we retain this tax-exempt status? It clearly is not the religion of old, more money is spent for lavish and expensive things than anything. New religions like scientology is a basically a tax shelter used by wealthy celebrities and athletes... Can I start my own religion and protect all my assets? I don't believe religions need or deserve tax exemption..
Uh, no. You're saying that my church should pay taxes now because we donate food to the church and they turn around and give it to the needy. We did this twice just yesterday morning for 2 families, one with one parent and 6 children. Guess we need to start charging the families that come in for the food we provide. I didn't realize my pastor drove a jaguar. I thought he had an Astro van and some kind of mitsubishi. If you start taxing religion, you have to start taxing all nonprofit organizations.
Planned Parenthood is not a political organization; it is a medical services organization.
Churches and other civic organizations open their rooms to AA, they charge for their use.
Tax the churches.
They tend to put their 2 cents into political discussions and void any charter with the state.
Shall we tax ACORN as well? They are a non-profit that engages in all things political. How about NARAL? They are a non-profit political organization too. Can't leave out Panned Abortionhood and those gay groups need to start ponying up, unions too.
Shall we tax ACORN as well? They are a non-profit that engages in all things political. How about NARAL? They are a non-profit political organization too. Can't leave out Panned Abortionhood and those gay groups need to start ponying up, unions too.
ACORN, NARAL, AIPAC, and the John Birch Society (amongst other groups) are non-profit political organizations but they are not allowed to make endorsements in elections, even though it's clear whom they favor.
I can't speak for ACORN, AIPAC, or the Birchers but NARAL does have affiliated PAC's which are not non-profits.
Move On is not a non-profit. And as I said earlier in this thread, the ACLU voluntarily relinquished non-profit status earlier in this decade so they could be free to make endorsements.
It is possible to allow for charity and charitable acts to be tax exempt. If a church is not running itself like a business then allow for their acts to be tax exempt not their business model. If a church is building multi-million dollar infrastructure, giving campaign contributions, employing people who earn a salary these are not tax exempt acts. Separate church and state like the framers intended tax the church like any other institution, make them file for not-for-profit status like every other business who conducts charitable acts.
The only thing houses of worship may not do is endorse or oppose candidates for public office or use their resources in partisan campaigns. This restriction, which is found in federal tax law, is not limited to churches and other religious ministries. In fact, it is applied to every non-profit organization in the country that holds a tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Contrary to the claims of many in the Religious Right, the IRS is not singling out houses of worship for special regulation. Thousands of educational, scientific, charitable and literary organizations hold the 501(c)(3) status, and all must abide by the legal requirement barring involvement in elections.
Why does this rule exist? The answer is obvious: Non-profit organizations receive tax exemption because their work is charitable, educational or religious. That tax benefit comes with conditions. One requirement is that tax-exempt organizations refrain from involvement in partisan politics. This is a reasonable rule, since tax-exempt groups are supposed to work for the public good, not spend their time and money trying to elect or defeat candidates.
This regulation is also designed to protect the integrity of the election process. Special types of organizations already exist to help political hopefuls win public office. Those groups, such as Political Action Committees, have a different tax status and are organized under a different set of rules than 501(c)(3) groups, rules designed to ensure that the nation's campaign-finance laws are followed. Blurring the distinction between these two types of organizations would harm both religion and politics.
The interesting thing about all this is that certain religious institutions have blatently ignored these stipulations...especially the Pat Robertson's and James Dobsons of the world. On the other side of the fence, the IRS and Congress have been ignoring the partisan activities of supposedly charitable organizations on both the Right and the Left. The large business churches like Focus on the Family AND blatantly partisan organizations like ACORN should have had their 501(c)(3) status revoked YEARS ago.
Religious organizations should remain tax exempt as long as they stick to the business of religion. But when they get involved in politics, like sheltering illegal aliens, or taking sides in political races, then they should lose their tax exempt status.
Agreed. I wish the male-dominated, "pro-life" religion I was born into would take a few dollars from running its mega-worldwide-bureaucracy and pay for some of the unwanted children they both demand (for their followers) and lobby (for politicians) to be continually brought into an already-overpopulated world.
Yes, churches should be tax exempt, as long as they remain apolitical. If you want to tax churches, then you must allow them to be political, and that would not be a desireable situation. Keep religion and government separated.
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They usually have two
