Should churches be taxed ?

I think every one of us should be taxed. It is not fair to tax one and not the other for whatever reason. I wish none of us had to pay taxes but we do and there should be no exclusions.

Seperation of Church and State could actually work against churches in this instance. In order to NOT tax a church, the government has to first DEFINE a church. The act of defining is therfore a problem. It would be easier and less meddlesome for the government to therefore just tax them normally. Not taxing churches was the first major loophole in the tax code and, as you pointed out, some people are abusing it.

Getting to the point directly.....then I should say all religious places should be taxed because I have found so many of them going overboard....Churches, Temples. I don't know about the Mosques and Gurudhwars and so I should not comment.

I am split on this. I just want to state, before I get started, that I do not attend church and do not believe in G*d. However, I find it unfair where churches are allowed to lobby in our government for things such as getting rid of gay marriage. I am not a homosexual, but I believe in equal rights for everyone. That being said, if we start taxing churches, we kind of open a pathway for churches to be involved in our government... or moreso since we legally have a separation of church and state, but it's obviously not practiced with "In God We Trust" written on our currency and the holding up the hand to the bible in court. Also, I think that those not paying into the system (I'm not talking about handicapped people because they obviously have a reason for not being able to pay into the system) should not be able to collect. I know of two ministers or preachers or whatever they are called that collect a LOT of money from the church from holding youth groups, does not pay taxes on this, and then collects welfare from the system. I do not stand for this and no-one should. What do you guys think about this?

This is a good discussion ronnyb! Churches should come under the non-profit organization umbrella but if you look at how rich the Catholic Church is with all its investments, properties etc. it does not seem fair that it avoid taxes. Perhaps it could be decided by auditing each church and its assets.

In England we are having churches shut because there is not enough people going and contributing to the collection plate.Money earn't by vicars and priest is taxed.I know in America the clergy make a fortune out of the congregation may be money could be taxed in those cases,but mainly vicars in our country are not well off and the old churches rely on fundraising to stop them falling into disrepair.Also the lead is always being stolen from the roofs.It is the people at the top archbishops and people like the pope who seem to have all the money,wonderful places to live and do not understand the poverty that many of their people live in.A bit like the banks and corrupt governments alike.These people are told to pray and the lord will provide ,how would the top people like to pray instead of eating or buying their expensive clothes and robes.

If they are non-profit organizations, sure it is ok to exempt them from taxes. But as we all see, church is far from non-profit and should be taxed like any other business.

Well as far as I know, temples (places of worship of the Hindu majority population) are NOT exempt from paying taxes here in India and rightly so coz they get ample donations from all their devotees worldwide. Apart from donations, there are many God-fearing Hindu businessmen, who make God as their partner and hand over parts of profit to the temples. However, religious institutions for minorities like mosques and churches are exempt from paying any tax just because they happen to belong to the minority, no matter how much money they get either from Saudi Arabia or the Vatican. On top of this, the Govt of India gives additional money for their upkeep…so much for secularism in India!

A church gets its money through tithes and tithes are considered tax deductible. However, the members will also put money in the collection plate as offerings. This is not tax deductible and the money in the collection plate is a free gift and goes to help the needy and the poor at home and abroad. The money from tithes goes to pay the minister's salary as well as to fix up the church, major repairs and also to help in the mission fields so it is used for good works. So what do you intend to give up? If churches are taxed, would not the government decide who and what the church should help? So supposing the church decides to help people in Cuba and America is against Cuba? By taxes churches, you limit their influence in good works and further burden the people who are already taxed anyway. As for what the church should do, it should do be used to preach the gospel and to spread the good news and the minister or reverend or pastor should receive a salary that would be equal to what a person of his education would get.

Well, we all know that there is suppose to be a separation of church and the state. But we could clearly see that a lot of those handling key positions in the church interfering with the affairs of the state. In this case, I think those who are interfering should be taxed. We could see that there are a lot of church officials joining rallies, making public statement about the state... perhaps they should be taxed. I was able to read on one state in the United States, I am not sure where, but the Governor was successful in implementing this scheme. Church establishment who criticize the state are being taxed. I would say that this is great.

HI RONNYB, I think since they run churches like buisnesses anymore they should be taxed. Churches are not anything like they use to ne in my opinion. They need to get back to like they use to be a place to worship god.

No, I think it's good churches don't get taxed. People are afraid churches might be corrupt, and I agree it's a factor, but you have to think the other way around too. If money is being taking from an entity, even a church, they have a say in where their money is going and in the government. When taxation is given so is representation. Furthermore, certain religions, such as Jevoh Witness, don't believe in government. They think it's a farce and God is the true government. So, how would it be fair to take from them when they don't even vote? I think churches shouldn't be taxed.

Hello my friend ronnyb Ji, Following information may help you to make your study lovable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_tax [b]"Church tax is a tax imposed on members of some religious congregations in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Sweden and some parts of Switzerland. Germany About 70% of church revenues come from church tax. This is about €8.5 billion (in 2002). Article 137 of the Weimar Constitution of 1919 and article 140 of the German Basic Law of 1949 are the legal basis for this practice. In Germany, on the basis of tax regulations passed by the communities and within the limits set by state laws, communities may either require the taxation authorities of the state to collect the fees from the members on the basis of income tax assessment (then, the authorities withhold a collection fee), or choose to collect the church tax themselves. In the first case, membership in the community is entered onto a tax document (Lohnsteuerkarte) which employees must surrender to their employers for the purpose of withholding tax on paid income. If membership in a tax-collecting religious community is entered on the document, the employer must withhold church tax prepayments from the income of the employee in addition to other tax prepayments. In connection with the final annual income tax assessment, the state revenue authorities also finally assess the church tax owed. In the case of self-employed persons or of unemployed taxpayers, state revenue authorities collect prepayments on the church tax together with prepayments on the income tax. If, however, religious communities choose to collect church tax themselves, they may demand that the tax authorities reveal taxation data of their members to calculate the contributions and prepayments owed. In particular, some smaller communities (e.g. the Jewish Community of Berlin) choose to collect taxes themselves to save collection fees the government would charge otherwise. Collection of church tax may be used to cover any church-related expenses such as founding institutions and foundations or paying ministers. The church tax is only paid by members of the respective church. People who are not member of a church tax-collecting denomination do not have to pay it. Members of a religious community under public law may formally declare their wish to leave the community to state (not religious) authorities. With such a declaration, the obligation to pay church taxes ends. Some communities refuse to administer marriages and burials of (former) members who had declared to leave it. The money flow of state and churches is distinct at all levels of the procedures. The church tax is not meant to be a way for the state to directly support churches, but since expenses for church tax are fully deductible in fact such support occurs on a somewhat large scale. The church tax is historically rooted in the pre-Christian Germanic custom where the chief of the tribe was directly responsible for the maintenance of priests and religious cults. During the Christianization of Western Europe, this custom was adopted by the Christian churches (Arian and Catholic) in the concept of "Eigenkirchen" (churches owned by the landlord) which stood in strong contrast to the central church organization of the Roman Catholic church. Despite the resulting medieval conflict between emperor and pope, the concept of church maintenance by the ruler remained the accepted custom in most Western European countries. In Reformation times, the local princes in Germany became officially heads of the church in Protestant areas and were legally responsible for the maintenance of churches. Not until the 19th century were the finances of churches and state regulated to a point where the churches became financially independent. At this point the church tax was introduced to replace the state benefits the churches had obtained previously. Taxpayers, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant or members of other tax-collecting communities, pay between 8% (in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) and 9% (in the rest of the country) of their income tax to the church or other community to which they belong. For example, a single person earning 50,000 euro may pay an average income-tax of 20% thus 10,000 euro. The church tax is then 8% (or 9%) of that 10,000 euro: 800 (or 900) euro."[/b] May God bless you and have a good time.

i have always gone to small chruchs and they didn't make enough money to be taxed just to keep up the chruch and small things but the bigger one i don't know about them.

well in my opinion , churches are the back bone of the nation or country and they should be looked after, but putting taxes is not good.