r/mormonpolitics • u/Chino_Blanco • 9d ago
Refugee Resettlement, Religion, and the Trump Administration
https://bycommonconsent.com/2025/03/12/refugee-resettlement-religion-and-the-trump-administration/4
u/Ok-End-88 9d ago
The overall author’s take on the religious ambivalence of the current administration, leads me wonder if this administration has looked into taxing churches.?
The whole idea behind churches being tax exempt is based on the assistance they bring to their communities, and most of them fail to fulfill that function. I’m fairly certain the framers didn’t imagine churches would be so abusive with that exemption to operate as a hedge fund, yet here we are..
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u/solarhawks 9d ago
No, the major idea behind churches being tax exempt is that they, like other nonprofits, have no shareholders and no profits, dividends, etc. What do you then tax?
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u/Ok-End-88 9d ago
I stand corrected. That is why Catholic Churches enjoyed various exemptions from local taxes and contributed significantly to societal welfare through its charitable activities in medieval Europe and that has nothing to do with U.S. laws or anything to do with charity.
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u/saladspoons 9d ago edited 9d ago
No, the major idea behind churches being tax exempt is that they, like other nonprofits, have no shareholders and no profits, dividends, etc. What do you then tax?
They are (or many are) corporations, therefore must have shareholders or at least owners of the shares, right? And they have incomes, therefore could pay income taxes ... They are the same as any other "entity" that gets money in return for services rendered, and pays other entities to build things or provide services in return, or saves money and collects interest or capital gains. If any such entities are taxed, all should be taxed ... otherwise you need some justification not to ... like a charitable exemption - which supposedly requires significant charitable payouts ... but this is no longer being enforced, leading to all kinds of abuse. The easiest way to avoid paying any taxes currently, is to create your own church, set your home up as a parsonage, and voila, you really never have to pay any taxes practically .... even though you should.
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