"I don't know how you feel, but I'm pretty sick of church people. You know what they ought to do with churches? Tax them. If holy people are so interested in politics, government, and public policy, let them pay the price of admission like everyone else. The Catholic Church alone could wipe out the national debt if all you did was tax their real estate." - George Carlin

Do you agree? Do you disagree? If you're jthxv, do you think I'm the moron, George is the moron, or we're both morons? This quote obviously references how much power religious groups have attained in our government and an amusing albeit legitimate solution to that problem.

Discuss.

I think you're a moron, but I think George is a comedian, he gets paid to make people laugh and to say controversial things.

What are the laws on Non-Profit organizations regarding taxes? I did a quick Google, but didn't find anything right off...

George Carlin isn't the only one who has toyed with the idea of church taxation.

Here are a couple of links:
http://www.infidels.org/library/histori ... ation.html
http://www.taxchurches.com
http://www.cjmciver.org/501c3.shtml

Some are more biased than others, but they all bring up a good point. The seperation of church and state seems to be stepped on by the fact that churches get by every month tax free, both in terms of ownership and income. Sure, some help the poor, but there are more efficient agencies out there that soley exist to do that. If you consider spreading "the word of God" a social service, well that's great, but I don't know how that warrants complete tax exemption.

This is just another one of those issues that probably isn't ever going to change. People can write all they want on the subject, but the fact of the matter is that this country was established, and is currently run by a Christian majority (George W., et al.).

good point, but you really cant tax their income as its always by donation or fundraiser type deals.

The compromise was that churches got to be tax-exempt (and got to take it a step further than all the other non-profits and didn't even have to disclose their finances). In exchange, they could not participate in the political process at all.

IMO, the Catholic Church should have lost their exempt status when they started "hinting" that Catholics who voted for Kerry couldn't be served communion and would probably go to hell.

Hrm, I never heard about that.

well if you supported some of the things kerry endorsed, then you werent a true christian anyway. but it was definately a step too far

The government definitely shouldn't be taxing churches.


The government definitely shouldn't be taxing income, personal property, sales, or most of the things it does tax.


The only legitimate tax that a government can levy is a tax on the use of public property, like the airwaves, water tables, highways, etc. That means that the government is spending waaaaaay too much money just to get their noses in our business.



Did you know that many taxes do not even pay for themselves? It costs more to administrate the inheritance tax than they make from it. Why is that? It's because the purpose is not to get money, it's to discourage certain "unapproved" behaviors (like smoking or drinking), or stop things like inheritance (you know, to spread the wealth around a little, ala communism).

[/rant]

Man, I'm pissy this week.

I think I speak for most people when I say

I say tax them. When they make rediculous amounts of money like that, they should be exempt from non-profit laws.

There are some religions and churches that don't make a rediculous amount of money. If you tax one you would have to tax them all, which would destroy some churches, which would anger the people who went there, who would not vote for the people who passed the law, who would never get re-elected, who would seek other employment, who would take the jobs of the middle class, which would drive up unemployment.

No, you don't have to tax all churches. Just change the law so if a non-profit organization makes a certain dollar amount, they have to pay taxes. Set the amount high enough so the churches raking in millions would have to pay, and the smaller churches that just get by with what they have wouldn't. And of course, it would apply to all non profits, not just churches.

I'm going to point out the part where you mention non-profit organization, then continue on in the same sentence to say 'make a certain amount' just because I can.

Fine. How about receives a certain amount?

well unless its a fairly corrupt system, which in my area isnt. the catholic church at least works kinda like this. the diocese where the cardinal/bishop in charge holds all the money from the churches within the diocese. its like a bank, but they only get what they need, so in general wealthier churches have better buildings and thats pretty much it, its the members that determine everything, and they are already being taxed.