The constitution protects these religious institution so that needs to be changed.

Millions and billions of dollars are collected every day and sent to places like the Vatican, Israel, Iran and other Moslem countries. The constitution did not intend that the American people fund all these countries, many that don’t even like us!

We can have religious freedom and still have these huge money making institutions pay their fair share of taxes.

And why not? They receive the same benefits that all Americans do. They are protected by our military, which eats up a huge part of our taxes. They have access to the roads, the infrastructure, clean water, sewage and a whole lot of other benefits that cost the rest of us taxpayers a bundle!

When we tax these religious freeloaders, the extra revenue will definitely bring down that huge deficit being created by our fearless leaders, who are clueless where that money will come from.

America is headed for bankruptcy; our social security and Medicare are near insolvent. Taxing the trillions of dollars that religious institutions send out of the country every year is a good place to start.

Another place is drug use. Criminal enterprises pocket billions of dollars in drug money every week! We need to legalize drugs and tax them!

People are fearful that drug addicts will then get behind the wheel and pose a danger to the rest of us.

Wake up and smell the coffee people! All those drugs hitting our streets 24/7 are going to people who drive and go to work and get behind dangerous machinery. They have done this for decades and will continue doing it regardless of our stupid drug laws.

Meanwhile our prisons keep filling up and we taxpayers keep shelling out billions for new prisons. Are we stupid or what?

Legalize drugs, tax them and America will be getting the trillions of dollars that are now going to a few drug lords.

Those who agree with this, copy it and sent it to your representative in Washington.

we also need to strart taxing all those companies that barely pay taxes for the amount of money they make, like GE. i remember seeing a list of big campanies that didnt have to pay taxes, that made ridiculous amounts of money in the last 8 years, and if they had paid taxes, my guess is we wouldnt have had alot of these bailouts, well maybe we would have but we wouldnt have been hurting as much.

Even better yet, remove all tax...

Businesses don't pay taxes- you do. IF GM had to pay (more) taxes, your product would cost more.

Instead of creating more taxes, let's cut spending and decrease taxes.



[edit on 21-6-2009 by Pabama]

I thought the churches got money from donations.
are you saying we should tax donations, or do churches not pay property tax or something like that?

Originally posted by heyo
I thought the churches got money from donations.
are you saying we should tax donations, or do churches not pay property tax or something like that?

Churches get money from donations but so what. Money is money and most of that money ends up overseas in the hands of powerful people, who are not always kind to the USA. But that is besides the point, that money should still be taxed.

Religious institutions do not pay property taxes, income taxes or any taxes that I’m aware of.

I live within a community which has a church and bank on every corner and in some cases many more than one...

Now although I agree with your reasoning, the original idea was a good one when churches were truly not for profit and stayed as broke as the poorest member.

All that has changed drastically and it has in many cases become a huge money making profiteering racket.

No longer truly giving back to the communities with only the blessings of God, now the government has stepped in and designed ways of filtering funds to the chosen few churches to dispense to the needy.

The churches can now tell you, "No, because if we give to you now, you will only be in need again next month." The government programs couldn't get away with that or risk being sued.

So the question is where are all the funds really going? I am certain you could audit a few example churches, but trust that there are those that are receiving the funds and hording, not giving back to the communities every Penney that they are allocated by the gov.

Charity has and always will be big business as long as people expect something for nothing.

Church and Government... The only thing this little combo forgot was God and abundance for alllll.

Currently donations should not be taxed because they have already been taxed and when spent will be taxed again.

What should be taxed are amounts sitting in banks drawing huge benifits and being used for not only the amount in the bank but the dividends and interest they are creating which is being dispersed back to those that do not pay tax.

So in other words this is why in my community we have bankers owining the churches and churches owning the banks. And the little old ladies are none the wiser.

I knew a couple that were wort a few million, they confided in me that they would donate to the church upon their death all of it. I asked "why?" and they said it would surly grant them access into heaven and give the chance for many more to be reached with the ministry it would provide...

Ok, the church is SOoooo rich already and I have seen nothing change nothing new since their deaths except more vanity from the PKs and wives...

I think if a church has enough money to build a mall sized church building and send their emissaries overseas on paid junkets and financially support the building of homes for Israelis over the bulldozed remains of Palestinian's homes then it is time to start taxing them like any other industrial sector.

When they oversee the building of churches and schools in poor countries they say it is for charity work however it is actually a money making deal... Everything is a write off. And again everything they spend is used for the interest, and thats the real story. Everytime they place a signature on a check, it automatically creates money, even if is not for profit becomes a promise to the FED which creates money based on that promise yet in all actuality cause greater debt to the balance of gold verses fiat.

Dont mean to be a thread killer and since the OP does not want to talk, then I guess I will now bow out, just seemed like an interesting thread title to me.

We can bash Churches all day long as well as taxes, but this is something that goes way beyond both of those simple issues. It is an opportunity for change and solutions.

Originally posted by Myendica
we also need to strart taxing all those companies that barely pay taxes for the amount of money they make, like GE. i remember seeing a list of big campanies that didnt have to pay taxes, that made ridiculous amounts of money in the last 8 years, and if they had paid taxes, my guess is we wouldnt have had alot of these bailouts, well maybe we would have but we wouldnt have been hurting as much.

You are right. We have bigger fish to fry right now besides relgious tax exemption. How about when we clean up Wall Street, the money illegal immigrants send out and the big bank players we can consider other options. Until then, this is just a thinly veiled anti-religious side show.

Originally posted by antar
Currently donations should not be taxed because they have already been taxed and when spent will be taxed again.

Donations and real estate owned by religious institutions add up to billions of taxable dollars. Everyone has to pay taxes or loses their houses and businesses, which many do. The tax burden is on too few. Personally I hate paying property taxes and would prefer to see another system put into place. But until then everyone should pay their share, religious institutions too.

Originally posted by GTORick
Until then, this is just a thinly veiled anti-religious side show.

Considering that most of the wars from the beginning of time were done because my god is better than your god is, yeah religion is insidious, and at the very least, it should be taxed. Religious wars have certainly taxed mankind, and continue to do so!

There is another dimesion to the 'separation of dollars and church to state' in that many churches..at least my neck of the woods...especially minority churches 'preach politics' from the pulpit and many politicians utilize this gift from 'God'. Please don't take this as anti-christian or racist in any way..it is not intended this way...I don't care what kind of church it is or who goes there...it is wrong for the churches to 'encourage' and use the church van to take voters to the poll...and 'help' many of the paritioners to vote. If they take money from politicians or use the church to vote it's members they should lose their tax status.. Period.

best regards,
seax125

Not all money going into churches goes overseas.

My father is a retired pastor. He was a pastor of a small (not a mega church) for many many years. He worked 24/7 doing the job - trust me, he really did. The money the church received went to his salary - which was not much at all and the running of the church (electricity, water, etc)and various church functions. The church catered to the community a lot and helped run a "kitchen" for the poor. And I could go on with the amount of things done - that require money.

None of the money taken in went to any other organizations (IE The Vatican). It was all funnled back into the church in order for it to function. Not all churchs are rich and nor do all pastor's families live in wealth. My father made about 5 times the amount of money being a private business owner than he did as a pastor.

So before people start slamming all churches - maybe you should pick on individual ones. Because not all churches are crooked. But I agree that many many are - sadly.

With that said, I really am not sure if churches should be taxed or not. We tax churches, we might as well tax charities too - since many many churces function like charities.


[edit on 6/21/2009 by greeneyedleo]

Originally posted by seax125
There is another dimesion to the 'separation of dollars and church to state' in that many churches..at least my neck of the woods...especially minority churches 'preach politics' from the pulpit and many politicians utilize this gift from 'God'. Please don't take this as anti-christian or racist in any way..it is not intended this way...I don't care what kind of church it is or who goes there...it is wrong for the churches to 'encourage' and use the church van to take voters to the poll...and 'help' many of the paritioners to vote. If they take money from politicians or use the church to vote it's members they should lose their tax status.. Period.

best regards,
seax125

Here in American you have the religious right that is one big political machine. And look at Iran and other middle east nations, the people are controlled by the religious leaders, they are slaves to them.

The staggering amounts of money funneled to these religions that are used strictly for political purposes is mindboggling. If a fraction of that money was poured into alleviating poverty the world would be a much better place to live. Instead, much of the money ends up in the hands of political warmongers.