"Renaissance Thinking About the Issues of Our Day"
If the Catholic church doesn't want the government's money, they should give up their non-profit status.
Submitted by Redlocks on 9. February 2012 - 12:37
Currently, churches are non-profit corporations.
This means there is no private ownership - by law the community owns them. There is also virtually no taxes paid...no income, sales, property, some wage taxes, etc.
That means that all churches get money/subsidises from the federal government...indirectly....
Therefore, if they don't like what the government asks of them, don't take the government's money and give up their non-profit status.
Comments
That means that all churches get money/subsidizes subsidizes subsidizes subsidizes the federal government...indirectly....
Therefore, if they don't like what the government asks of them, don't take the government's money and give up their non-profit status.
Sorry, I missed your question a while back. In case you see this again, here is my answer.
I was speaking of indirect funding. If a person or a corporation does business, normally they have to pay property taxes, pay sales taxes, income taxes, employee/wage taxes etc. Even non-profit corporations have to pay taxes...unless they elect to become a tax exempt corporation. This is the normal tax entity that is created for a church, synogogue, mosque, Scientology ?store?, etc. to do business.
These corporations and the activies of the people involved, don't pay taxes that everone else pays. They can even pick a few people that they can pay wages to and still pay no payroll taxes. This means that everyone else in the community that pays taxes, has to pay a little bit extra - whether we like the religion or not - to cover the expenses that these corporations generate for society at large. It costs us all just a litte bit extra to have functioning roads, fire and police protection, etc. to each religious corporation - that they do not pay for.
Also, non-profit corporations receive special grants from the government that other people and entities don't get...simply from being a tax-exempt corporation. That is not what I was really talking about, but many larger tax exempt religious organizations receive government funds only intended for religious corporations.