3 ms·

Charity organisations usually get tax exemptions too. Maybe make that the only tax exemption, and have religious organisations prove that they are charities.

• skissane 6y ago
  Under English common law, religious organisations are charities by definition. A charitable trust is a trust which serves a "charitable purpose", and the "advancement of religion" has long been recognised as a charitable purpose, going back to at least 1601 [1]. (Originally all charities were trusts, and so charity law formed part of trust law; later, people began using other legal structures for charities, and the rules which defined a charity in trust law were extended to apply in those other cases too.) Most jurisdictions which inherited English common law, have maintained the classification of "advancement of religion" as a charitable end. To give just one example, look at how the IRS defines "charity" in the US [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charitable_trusts_in_English_law#Charitable_purpose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charitable_trusts_in_English_l... [2] https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-purposes https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-purpose...
• lightgreen 6y ago
  They don’t have to be charities. It should be enough if they are nonprofit (which most churches are I hope).
  • Galaxeblaffer 6y ago
    No one really knows since they don't have to tell anyone how they get money or how they spend them
    • lightgreen 6y ago
      It doesn’t matter because in order to get nonprofit status they’d need to fill some forms explaining how it is managed, financial statements, maybe perform external audit if they are large enough etc. If they are not willing to do that work, they won’t be eligible for nonprofit tax exemption.