Thursday, May 12, 2005
Politics Prompt Church Tax Questions - Yahoo! News
Politics Prompt Church Tax Questions - Yahoo! News
This article, discussing an advocacy group's call for the IRS to investigate the tax-exempt status of the church in North Carolina wherein the minister called for Democrats to "repent or resign" raises the question to my mind of how stable a policy is the tax exemption for churches. While I find the policy of the minister disgusting, I also fear that the tax-exempt policy has become a carrot to keep churches from becoming a political threat to the state. Vague and hazy recollections come to mind of churches playing a key role in the drumming up of support for secession from Britain in the 18th century, for instance. On the other hand, one can expect that were it to be licit for 'churches' to take political stances, all politically active groups would henceforth declare themselves to be churches. But, seeing as this makes for an apparent choice between neutering the potential political voice of the religious element of society on the oen hand and on the other denying a revenue to the state, the choice can hardly but be decided in favor of the latter.
Unless, of course, I'm missing something, as I tend to do.
Link
This article, discussing an advocacy group's call for the IRS to investigate the tax-exempt status of the church in North Carolina wherein the minister called for Democrats to "repent or resign" raises the question to my mind of how stable a policy is the tax exemption for churches. While I find the policy of the minister disgusting, I also fear that the tax-exempt policy has become a carrot to keep churches from becoming a political threat to the state. Vague and hazy recollections come to mind of churches playing a key role in the drumming up of support for secession from Britain in the 18th century, for instance. On the other hand, one can expect that were it to be licit for 'churches' to take political stances, all politically active groups would henceforth declare themselves to be churches. But, seeing as this makes for an apparent choice between neutering the potential political voice of the religious element of society on the oen hand and on the other denying a revenue to the state, the choice can hardly but be decided in favor of the latter.
Unless, of course, I'm missing something, as I tend to do.
Comments:
Why in the world are churches exempt from taxation in the first place? That just seems so old-fashioned to me.
I understand that many churches participate in acts of charity, and it makes sense to me that this should be encouraged, but there is already a way of doing this for private individuals—I can claim a deduction on any income that goes to charity—so why not extend something similar to churches (or any other group) and be done with these restrictions on who is and who isn't being political or charitable or religious?
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I understand that many churches participate in acts of charity, and it makes sense to me that this should be encouraged, but there is already a way of doing this for private individuals—I can claim a deduction on any income that goes to charity—so why not extend something similar to churches (or any other group) and be done with these restrictions on who is and who isn't being political or charitable or religious?
