Tax churches

Post Reply New Topic

I don't know about billionaires, but they got rich by being charlatans and thankfully there are only a handful of them in comparison with the number of well-meaning pastors.

This is the kind of guy that gives most other pastors and churches a bad name!
When you mention this guy to mainstream pastors that don't know whether to burst out laughing at him or facepalm.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aug814m2PMM[/youtube]

It is not like their jobs are any useful anyway. Why care about reverends going poor when we do not care about say Beeper salesmen going poor?

All people with low income jobs still have to pay taxes. I do not find any relevance in the "they win so little" argument.



Anyway, let me repeat myself. These petitions are not about taxing Religious charities. If a Religious charity can prove itself to be one going through all the standards that secular charitiers have to do, then that's ok. These petitions are agains the charlatans. If your reverends can really prove that they do ton of charity work and win very little out of that, then they will keep their charity privileges.

But let us stop assuming that Church = should not pay taxes by default. Also, they should step their nose off politics if they want to get away with not paying taxes.

What does non profit mean?

Does it mean no one in the organization gets paid.

I can top that

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYNHDMXuuAQ[/youtube]

Luckily, we don't have to ask you for measurement of what is "useful" and what is not.

I do also happen to think that one can't serve god and mammon at the same time, but members of religious institutions have the same basic civic right of being involved in politics, and if you have a problem with that... well, that's your problem.

You are comparing apples to oranges, Churches or religious organizations are operated under 501(c)3 tax guidelines, in other words, they operate under Non-Profit. Churches are not businesses, they are strictly ran by a un-paid volunteer group of people. I know this to be true, because I actually interned at a Church myself.

Churches operate primarily upon tithes and offerings, people willingly not obligated to support the financial infrastructure of the church.
On top of that, giving money to charity, or the church is a taxable write-off. At least, for now it is.

Best Regards,

Jake

Jake, when you say people are strictly unpaid, do you mean the controlling board (or leadership) or do you mean clergy and staff?

In case I haven't said this yet. Because apparently I haven't. This is the whole point of the discussion. The assumption that just because it is a church or religious organization it is a non-profit.

Non-church non-profits need to do a lot more paper work to prove their non-profit status. That's the reason for the IRS lawsuits.

This is to challenge the double standard. Religious non-profits and churches should be subjected to the same standards as non-religious ones to apply. And if they are not, then they must pay taxes like any other non-profit.

This is the problem. Some of your churches are really businesses. For example, a dude wanting to sell his bookseller self-help compendion may spend all his time making feel good speeches and does more work than some teleevangelists out there.



If the church you interned is a real non-profit and not a business, then it would only be affected by my request in that you might need to do more paper work than usual (same as a non-church non-profit).

Your anecdote is worth 0 dollars. Your partial experience with one church of one xtian denomination does is not really proof that all Christian churches out there are so honest and have so unpaid people working there.

Maybe you should begin to, because it seems that I am much better at doing that than you are.

Clerics have the same right as I to get involved in politics. But when they do so they MUST lose their tax privileges. Turns out this is not only an opinion of mine, but actual US law (and similar laws apply in many other countries). I think it may be out of a concept called "separation between something and something", hmnn I think one of the somethings was "state". But I don't remember correctly.

Everyone. It is solely based upon volunteer efforts.

Best Regards,

Jake

Typically "Non-Church" non profits are public organizations and special interest groups. They have a political agenda.



So, tax the dude on his profits on the books and speeches that he sells, not the church itself.



I understand your qualms but you are really barking up the wrong tree. You are willing to risk my personal experience as valid evidence, do you really want me to show you the Church's licenses to operate?



I interned for 6 months but I have more experience than you do. If you have something to add, say it. I'm open to learning.


Best Regards,

Jake

Um, isn't that what I said two paragraphs after you cut off my post in your quote?

I didn't notice.

ruveyn

You mean, like churches, right?

There are various churches out there and some are composed of just the guy and his books.



No.
I don't care at all about your anecdotes.

I mean, like ACLU, FFR, NPR, groups like that.



Then why did you care enough to respond to me at all?


Best Regards,

Jake

You claimed the difference between secular non-profits and churches is that secular ones have a political agenda. Don't churches too?

So that you know that repeating it has no effect.