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> Tax exemption should be a non-issue. > Any church run as a business should not be considered a church at all. Churches are always businesses. It takes a lot

> Tax exemption should be a non-issue. > Any church run as a business should not be considered a church at all. Churches are always businesses. It takes a lot of money to own and operate large buildings, pay people to work for the church, and operate events for churchgoers. Eventually they need to accumulate funds to expand and build new churches. It’s a business, like it or not. The issue is that some of these churches have taken the original intent of the business supporting the church and turned it into a questionable structure where it appears the church supports the business. Having millions of “customers” worldwide who are obligated to give you 10% of their income every year and to allocate years of their life to traveling the world and convincing other people to join is one lucrative business model. We can’t really go out and tell people what their religion can or cannot do (within the bounds of the law) but we can, and should, set some limits on the tax breaks we give to these religion-businesses. The easiest way is obviously to set some limits or thresholds. “Tax exempt up to $1 billion in funds” is hard to argue with and would easily solve this problem.

mcv 3y ago
No, they're a mix of an association and a charity. But mostly association. They've got members, the members vote for leaders, they contribute funds to rent a building and hire someone to lead the service. There's nothing business about a normal church. For limits and thresholds, I'd suggest "No property tax for congregation/worship space up to $X per Y members, no payroll taxes for 1 person involved in services or charity work per Z members". Most churches don't have millions of members. Mine has about 200. It's part of a larger denomination, but membership is through the local congregation. I suppose religions should have some freedom in how to structure this sort of thing (not all have their leaders chosen by their members, for example, and some are more top-down organised), but I also think it's fair to have some restrictions on the more business-like organisations in order to prevent abuse. And if people really do want a big, monolithic, top-down business-like organisation, they can always just pay their taxes.

mcv 3y ago

No, they're a mix of an association and a charity. But mostly association. They've got members, the members vote for leaders, they contribute funds to rent a building and hire someone to lead the service. There's nothing business about a normal church. For limits and thresholds, I'd suggest "No property tax for congregation/worship space up to $X per Y members, no payroll taxes for 1 person involved in services or charity work per Z members". Most churches don't have millions of members. Mine has about 200. It's part of a larger denomination, but membership is through the local congregation. I suppose religions should have some freedom in how to structure this sort of thing (not all have their leaders chosen by their members, for example, and some are more top-down organised), but I also think it's fair to have some restrictions on the more business-like organisations in order to prevent abuse. And if people really do want a big, monolithic, top-down business-like organisation, they can always just pay their taxes.