Should churches remain tax-exempt?

2 Comments

US churches* received an official federal income tax exemption in 1894, and they have been unofficially tax-exempt since the country's founding. All 50 US states and the District of Columbia exempt churches from paying property tax. Donations to churches are tax-deductible. The debate continues over whether or not these tax benefits should be retained.

Proponents argue that a tax exemption keeps the government out of church finances and thus upholds the separation of church and state. They say that churches deserve a tax break because they provide crucial social services, and that 200 years of church tax exemptions have not turned America into a theocracy.

Opponents argue that giving churches special tax exemptions violates the separation of church and state, and that tax exemptions are a privilege, not a constitutional right. They say that in tough economic times the government cannot afford what amounts to a subsidy worth billions of dollars every year.

remain tax exempt 7
pay taxes 17
don't care 2
other 2
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Comments ( 2 )
  • Ellenna
    8 years ago

    No entity should be tax exempt unless it can prove it's 100% non profit, and that includes mosques and temples and synagogues and chapels as well as churches.

    In Australia, the catholic church is tax exempt but when people who'd been sexually abused by priests tried to sue, the church said it wasn't an employer of the priests and that it didn't exist as a legal entity

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  • Mr-Myrtos
    9 years ago

    I live in Europe and in most countries its the same.
    If they practice social work out of the money they get from people and other investments they make its correct not to pay taxes. The problem is, nobody controls their incomes and that should be done.
    Any church should have their accounts checked and it should be possible for everyone to know how much they make and were they spend as well as all kind of investments. Investments must be clean and open to public.
    If churches don't want to open their financial doors to everyone than they must open them to tax people and start paying taxes in the same dimension as any other one.
    So far the problem, at least were I come from is this: If the Catholic church, for example stops their social work its a total disaster coz regular social welfare wont be able to fill the gap.
    Here is a huge discussion since quite a long time. Right wind political parties and central do not want to talk about it and they vote now, which means they mustn't pay any taxes. Central left, left and extreme left do want them to pay taxes claiming social welfare must be all made by the state and churches must only care about spiritual and nothing never to do with money.
    (sorry for my english, hope you understood it)

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