should religious institutions be tax-exempt?

[lostcoyote]

why or why not?

 

[pwbset]

Dunno about where you are, but locally churches tend to have more money than most because of tithes/donations etc. etc. Tax exempt churches kinda smacks of rich getting richer. 'Course it's hardly the churches fault that the "faithful" give so much I suppose. Tough one... churches are like banks to me... they seem to pop up everywhere and there are waaaaay too many of both, which I naturally conclude means they have way too much money on their hands. *shrug*

 

[Anonymous]

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[EMF]

Well, corporations are tax exempt. At least (some) churches do something positive for the less fortunate, you can't say that about any corporation I know of.....What is ugly though, is some of these "churches" like some televangelists, take advantage of peoples faith and profit from it. Take their last dime and go buy a Mercedes with it.

 

[Anonymous]

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[lostcoyote]

"But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! -- George Carlin

lol - yeah, i really do love that video.... on youtube

i think i had in mind the multi-million dollar institutions that are not all that much different from corporations that tend to have influence on public officials via special interest in self-preservation.

maybe the corner church down in the countryside that rakes in a few bucks a week could be bracketed into the zero tax bracket,,,,,, but the billion dollar enterprise - nahhh, tax 'em i say... and tax 'em real hard!

 

[ebinary]

Well, corporations are tax exempt. At least (some) churches do something positive for the less fortunate, you can't say that about any corporation I know of.....What is ugly though, is some of these "churches" like some televangelists, take advantage of peoples faith and profit from it. Take their last dime and go buy a Mercedes with it.

???

Corporations are not tax exempt unless they are charities, churches, or non-profit organiztions.

 

[EMF]

Well, corporations are tax exempt. At least (some) churches do something positive for the less fortunate, you can't say that about any corporation I know of.....What is ugly though, is some of these "churches" like some televangelists, take advantage of peoples faith and profit from it. Take their last dime and go buy a Mercedes with it.

???

Corporations are not tax exempt unless they are charities, churches, or non-profit organiztions.

Oh? Well, then there is a lot of charity goin' on!! Thanks Corporate America! Plus, whilst paying no income tax, the corporations are handed tax breaks to ship jobs overseas etc...


The New York Times August 12, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/business/13tax.html

Study Tallies Corporations Not Paying Income Tax

Two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005, according to a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The study, which is likely to add to a growing debate among politicians and policy experts over the contribution of businesses to Treasury coffers, did not identify the corporations or analyze why they had paid no taxes. It also did not say whether they had been operating properly within the tax code or illegally evading it.

The study covers 1.3 million corporations of all sizes, most of them small, with a collective $2.5 trillion in sales. It includes foreign corporations that do business in the United States.

Among foreign corporations, a slightly higher percentage, 68 percent, did not pay taxes during the period covered — compared with 66 percent for United States corporations. Even with these numbers, corporate tax receipts have risen sharply as a percentage of federal revenue in recent years.

People are getting laid off as CEO's rake in Multi-million dollar bonuses....

 

[swbluto]

Well, as adverse as I'm personally to ludicrous religious ideas(That was tautological), it seems as if the institutions that promote them generally actually do some "social good", considering the social cohesiveness and altruistic functions that churches tend to perform in a society whose members could be benefited from such(A particular set of members that could make a society could possibly be not benefited from churches, so the support would be reversed, but I don't think we'll see such a human society in the near future given historical evolutionary selection and, especially, current selection's lack thereof) so I think tax-exemption or at least tax-reduction would be justified.

 

[swbluto]

Well, corporations are tax exempt. At least (some) churches do something positive for the less fortunate, you can't say that about any corporation I know of.....What is ugly though, is some of these "churches" like some televangelists, take advantage of peoples faith and profit from it. Take their last dime and go buy a Mercedes with it.

???

Corporations are not tax exempt unless they are charities, churches, or non-profit organiztions.

Multi-national corporations can be tax-evasive and the largest ones tend to be multi-national.

 

[Anonymous]

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[dirtdad]

Yes, the Sierra Club should keeps its tax free status.

 

[Anonymous]

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[ebinary]

Oh? Well, then there is a lot of charity goin' on!! Thanks Corporate America! Plus, whilst paying no income tax, the corporations are handed tax breaks to ship jobs overseas etc...

Well, even if I company employs a million people, builds great products - if it nets less than $10K (or something similar) in profits, it won't pay taxes.

Does that mean its a bad thing? Its still a huge engine helping people and the economy

Most companies try to grow, which means they reinvest their profits - if the profits are reinvested, they usually aren't taxable. Hence, only companies that want to stay the same size, or pay dividends, or have no other large entity available to buy, will pay many taxes.

I'd personally rather have a company give me a job, than another church in town

 

[EMF]

Oh? Well, then there is a lot of charity goin' on!! Thanks Corporate America! Plus, whilst paying no income tax, the corporations are handed tax breaks to ship jobs overseas etc...

Well, even if I company employs a million people, builds great products - if it nets less than $10K (or something similar) in profits, it won't pay taxes.

Does that mean its a bad thing? Its still a huge engine helping people and the economy

Most companies try to grow, which means they reinvest their profits - if the profits are reinvested, they usually aren't taxable. Hence, only companies that want to stay the same size, or pay dividends, or have no other large entity available to buy, will pay many taxes.

I'd personally rather have a company give me a job, than another church in town

I agree with that statement. Except it is hard to fathom, with nearly 70% of Corporations growing and re-investing, that so many people are getting laid off every day....But, who knows? Maybe without such tax breaks, the situation would be worse, I have no idea. :|

 

[ebinary]

I agree with that statement. Except it is hard to fathom, with nearly 70% of Corporations growing and re-investing, that so many people are getting laid off every day....But, who knows? Maybe without such tax breaks, the situation would be worse, I have no idea.

The problem over the last 8 years is that only oil companies and defense suppliers have made ANY money. So then you get layoffs AND no taxes from the remaining companies.

And only what, one in a hundred internet companies ever made a dime - more layoffs with no tax revenue.

Eric

 

[EMF]

I agree with that statement. Except it is hard to fathom, with nearly 70% of Corporations growing and re-investing, that so many people are getting laid off every day....But, who knows? Maybe without such tax breaks, the situation would be worse, I have no idea.

The problem over the last 8 years is that only oil companies and defense suppliers have made ANY money. So then you get layoffs AND no taxes from the remaining companies.

And only what, one in a hundred internet companies ever made a dime - more layoffs with no tax revenue.

Eric

I remember over and over again, during these 8 years - how the housing market was keeping the economy afloat. Now, we don't even have that! I also remember, how during the Clinton administration, how jobs were lost, benefits were decreased and pay cuts were sometimes given. Remember the old joke from then, Something about how Clinton created so many new jobs, for the people that lost their old ones? And the punch line was "Yeah. I got three of them". So, people have been going broke and living on credit cards for a long time, now it looks like everything is catching up with us.

 

[ebinary]

I also remember, how during the Clinton administration, how jobs were lost, benefits were decreased and pay cuts were sometimes given.

I dunno about that - I'm a software engineer, and during the Clinton administration I made BANK! Every software company I worked for added every benefit you could imagine - plus options. I had bidding wars for my services that were nuts. Too bad that bubble eventually burst, but not until GWB was in office.

Unfortunately I was with a broke startup when the bubble burst, and my salary today is still only about 85% of my Clinton-era salary.

 

[EMF]

I also remember, how during the Clinton administration, how jobs were lost, benefits were decreased and pay cuts were sometimes given.

I dunno about that - I'm a software engineer, and during the Clinton administration I made BANK! Every software company I worked for added every benefit you could imagine - plus options. I had bidding wars for my services that were nuts. Too bad that bubble eventually burst, but not until GWB was in office.

Unfortunately I was with a broke startup when the bubble burst, and my salary today is still only about 85% of my Clinton-era salary.

Well, that certainly sucks. But, at least you have a skill set that will carry you through...

 

[disadvantage]

Unfortunately I was with a broke startup when the bubble burst, and my salary today is still only about 85% of my Clinton-era salary.

This is exactly what happened to me, only more like 70%.

 

[mvadventure]

Today is the day we had to mail our quarterly tax in to Uncle Sugar and the Communistic Democratic Congress to spend giving it to folks who chose not to work or carry insurance on their homes or want the government to be responsible for their lives. Funny thing though when I owned a corporation I actually had to send my tax in much more often and had to send not only my employee payroll taxes in monthly I had to send in my share of those taxes. I paid taxes on offices, equipment, supplies, fuel, labor, insurance, repairs and telephones. I paid taxes on our radios, our medical supplies, insurance, our parts and every single thing that came into the offices and shop and I still made a fair profit.

Guess who actually paid those taxes. Not me, without the customer there would have been NO money. None. The Customer paid those taxes in increased fees for service. In fact if every customer paid that fee, if 100% of those customers paid the fee charged the overall fee could have been reduced by 25%. But since some didn't everyone else had to cover the difference which meant they not only paid the TAXES they paid for those who couldn't afford to pay or simply wouldn't pay.

Corporate America is not evil. Corporate America is owned by investors and provides a product or service in an effort to make a profit. Uncle Sugar taxes the corporation and the investors for every penny of profit made, none escapes. The customers of Corporate America pays those taxes. Look at your phone bill and all those aggravating taxes added on at the bottom. The phone company isn't paying those taxes, YOU ARE. Vote more phone taxes in and guess who is going to pay them. Vote more corporate taxes in and guess who is going to pay them. If Nike is taxes another 18% the price of tennis shoes will go up 18% plus the cost of figuring the taxc.

Most churches on the other hand provide a much higher level of service for the dollar as they don't have to include taxes in their basic operating costs except for employees and yes, churches pay taxes there the same as everyone else. Church sponsored child care would be much more expensive if they had to pay property taxes just to mention a single much used church service.

Churches and their personnel however provide a service to the community, for FREE, not available elsewhere. Still, in the United States of America, "In God We Trust". The Liberals have been trying to take that away for years and have yet to reach that particular goal. B. Hussein Obama and his liberal pals from Massachusets may try and they won't succeed either, Churches are a part of America.

I'm no longer a CEO but I am an investor and I pay taxes. A lot of them and I bitch about some of them but I pay them and In God I Trust and I really don't want to have to pay taxes at Church too.
Mike

 

[jerryt]

I agree with mvadventure; I believe he nailed it.

Yes, the Sierra Club should keeps its tax free status.

John Muir was fairly religious about nature, a "nature mystic"

:lol: :lol:
Churches as non profit groups are not unlike the Sierra Club. However, the Supreme Court decided there must be a separation between church and state but when churches become “political” their tax free status is jeopardized.

Unfortunately, that standard doesn’t apply to non profit groups like the Sierra Club which is organized solely for political purposes.