Tax the Amish and Mennonites

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Amish and Mennonites are partially exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes due to their religious belief that the religion should provide for their own when they are needy. I dont think it fair that self-employed Amish and Mennonites are exempt when my parents are not.

Also this has allowed their businesses to outcompete Non-Amish and Non-Mennonite Businesses and undercut them. I think we need to level the playing field and tax the these Anabaptist groups to the extent that the typical American is. I dont think its fair that they get to be partially exempt. They need to be legally forced into paying taxes for Social Security and Medicare like we are.

Interesting. I can't answer the poll because I don't know enough about US taxes. But... if some Amish or Mennonite groups are opting out of services such as Social security or Medicare, then, I think that it makes sense if they are exempt from paying into them?

It might feel unfair.. but if they aren't going to use the service, then it makes sense they might be able to be exempt or partially exempt... so from that point, I see why they have it. Though by paying taxes they could help their wider community. But some Amish and older order Mennonite communities can be very restrictive and not interact much outside their communities.

Of course there are lots of different Mennonites and many are modern and pay taxes but that's a separate point (I come by this knowledge more on a personal level of people I know)

As to how that affects competition in business, I can see this seems personal for you, there must be a specific business in your town that is exempt from taxes and it looks unfair.

It's always possible that sometimes people will exploit tax laws for their own gain. Which isn't good of course.
But there are also reasons for exemptions that make sense to me, but I'm outside of the US and not an expert in US taxes at all.

On second thought, I selected "maybe" in the poll because that's close enough to what I think, because I think there's always room for 'maybe'.

In my opinion, people of ALL religions should pay the same taxes as the irreligious, and that ALL religious institutions should be taxed as much as any other business.

Hell, if you taxed all the property the Catholic Church owns maybe the USA could actually balance the budget. These churches make out like bandits not having to pay taxes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlCj-4jFpKQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0MvtzjN16k

Churches are not totally tax-free in America because they have to pay Unrelated Business Income Taxes, Payroll taxes and in some cases property taxes. They might be other taxes too.

Taxing the Catholic Church would not make much of a difference in balancing the budget. The Catholic Church is not even worth 300 Billion in America and taxing just a small percentage of that would not make a difference.What do you think of the Amish and Mennonite Social Security loopholes?

I think religious organizations should be held to same standards and pay taxes like every other organization. And to be clear, that goes for Amish and Mennonites as well.