Why do churches, temples, & mosques deserve tax exempt status?

Question

Many religious congregations spend only a small portion of their income on charity, all the while spending the lion's share on agrandizing their buildings & facilities and paying staff members.

Other non-profits must apply for and justify their tax-exempt status, but religious congregations are granted tax-exempt status by default.

Why should the government subsidize religions via automatic tax exemptions?

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Answer 1

The most simple answer is the oft mis-interpreted separation of
church and state.


You don't want religious influence on the government, you wont let religion be represented in government, but you'll take tax dollars from them?

Answer 2

In the US the reason is to maintain separation of church and state, i.e. to protect and preserve freedom of religion.

Take this away, and let's think through an example:

Assume that a "new church" comes to an existing community, and for the sake of clarifying the argument I will stipulate in advance that this "new church" is the ideal community service oriented organization -- but that it comes without the legal exemption every "old church" in town could work behind the scenes with community leaders to financially discriminate against a specific congregation's ability to raise funds, etc.

Before long then the majority religion gains the ability tio discriminate against ALL other religions in the community and the "state" is backing it by unfairly taxing all of the other congregations/denominations, etc. Make sense?

That said, a "church" can lose it's tax exempt status if the IRS determines that it is really nothing more than a money machine.

Answer 3

The establishment clause in the Constitution is the main driver.

However, there is a big misconception about "tax-exempt" status. Many have argued that it is unconstitutional, and I agree with them. Unfortunately, the courts have not agreed.

The argument is something like this: Churches are "tax exempt" - but as incorporated bodies, they are required to file W-2 on their employees. This is a clear violation of the First Amendment, because the church, in effect, becomes a representative of the government, and does the government's job as far as taxation of its employees goes..

Your question could be reversed to word: "Why should churches be required to perform a function of the government?"

Thus, there is the "unincorporated church movement." Many churches are now refusing to incorporate, thereby absolving them from having to with hold taxes from their employees. The employees then just file taxes as any other normal person, and pay their tax that way.

So you see, "tax exempt status" is really just a way for government to interfere with church business, which is, IMO, unconstitutional. Unfortunately, many churches are afraid of operating as unincorporated bodies, because they do not want to incur the wrath of the IRS.

Also, churches are not "granted tax exempt status" by default. As illustrated above, they do not get this status unless they incorporate just as any other non-profit. Unicorporated churches would enjoy "tax free status," which is really no status at all, and that's the way it should be. In keeping with the First Amendment, it would seem to me that as far as taxation goes, the government should not recognize a church as even existing, at least for taxation purposes. The employees of a church are still liable for taxes, but that is wholly separate from the existence of the church they work for. In effect, they should be treated as independent business owners.

Love Jack

Answer 4

They don't;I wonder that myself. The only thing I can come up with is that religious leaders wield a lot of power over government officials, through votes and monetary contributions. This being said, if they government alienates religious leaders, those leader will simply demonize the people trying to change this; thus encouraging their congregations to vote for someone. After all, these days religious organizations are political battlegrounds.

Answer 5

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The exemption from tax for religious organizations preserves their freedom. It is not challenging to figure out ways to bias the tax code in favor of one group over another. The exemption protects all parties from potential harm. There is nothing in the Constitution and certainly nothing in the religions mentioned that does not premit them to spend as much on buildings as they wish to. They do not have to conform themselves to what you feel a religion should be like. The constitution protects religious people from people like you who feel a religion should support certain things over others. This grants freedom of choice to religious people. It does not require charitable existence and in fact some religions in the world lack a charitable component to them. "Charity," is an element of some religous groups, but the constitution does not mention charity as any requirement to be religious. It is a social judgment as to what is acceptable and unacceptable as to whether a religion should require or support charity. There is nothing inherent in religions unless those religions have it as component

Answer 6

No such thing as homosexual marriage as marriage has been defined since the beginning of time as a man and his wife. Edit: 'Hannes' the word church means the people who follow God, not the building. The laws set by God for Israel, the only known written laws of civil government from God, were that those working for God are not to be taxed at all. Ezra 7:23-24

Answer 7

churches have to apply for tax status just like every other non-profit organization.

Answer 8

At present, the only answer is: Because they don't dare cut off the subsidy, not if they want to stay in office.

Answer 9

Because the priests and the pastors, whoever works in the church, or mosque, doesn't get payed much, they would become extremely poor with taxes, even though they are teaching what they believe.

Answer 10

I do not believe they do. They are selling a product just like any other company and should pay their taxes accordingly.