Why Is The Biggest Money Maker On the Planet TAX EXEMPT?

Maybe this belongs in the rant forum, but I am not ranting....I am suggesting something and formulating an opinion......

It seems to me that religion gets away with MURDER when it comes to TAXATION.

Want to avoid paying taxes? Create a religious organization and accept "BLOOD MONEY" in the name of charitable donations....Would someone please explain to me why religions don't have to pay taxes?

You get a tax write off for making donations...why?

Want to eliminate the trillion dollar deficit? Make religions pay taxes and over half of that will be eliminated....so many exist for the sole purpose of extracting money from the flock....what a crock....I see opulence everywhere religion is involved....oh they have soup kitchens....oh they have food drives and clothing collections for the poor....awwww....give me a break....build a bigger church.....drive expensive cars....wear fancy clothes...have expensive fundraisers....and the homeless people just live right down the street on a bench....wow...religion is great.

Religion is responsible for at least have of the wars in existence and the death included....the other half is associated with another GOD.....gold, oil, and diamonds.

So why do they get tax exemptions?

Soul

A better question: why don't we all get tax exemption?

We have bloated governments. Without all of this, our tax burden would be much, much less. THAT is the real conspiracy

If churches were not tax exempt they would have more clout to shape government policy, due to the large amounts of money they would be giving the government.

Personally, I've never understood why the common people would accept any religious institution would be in need of bringing in massive amounts of wealth. It's plainly obvious many of these religious leaders are in it as a means to a money grab.Send me money, send me green, heaven you will meet.Make a contribution and you'll get a better seat.

With the churches being tax exempt, it keep the preachers on a 'leash' so to speak. They cannot speak for/against government policies without losing their exempt status.
What this really means, is that they have gone the way of Baalam, who prophesied for money.
2 Peter Ch. 2 gives a perfect description of these false teachers, who sell truth for profit.

Hey Soul Power, I think it comes down to the fact that most of these so called religions are actually cults. Last time I noticed God doesn't need money, being the Great Spiritual Entity that they are. Also, from what I know on the subject any sort of Grasping of Wealth is actually a Great Impediment to spiritual Progression and Evolution. It seems the World is full of Deceptive Religious Scammers just scaring people into giving up a little of their Daily Bread so these self perceived pious people can live Grand and Opulent Lifestyles that they seem to think is their proper place in this Universe.
Namaste Arjunanda

Originally posted by soulpowertothendegree
Maybe this belongs in the rant forum, but I am not ranting....I am suggesting something and formulating an opinion......

It seems to me that religion gets away with MURDER when it comes to TAXATION.

Want to avoid paying taxes? Create a religious organization and accept "BLOOD MONEY" in the name of charitable donations....Would someone please explain to me why religions don't have to pay taxes?

You get a tax write off for making donations...why?

Want to eliminate the trillion dollar deficit? Make religions pay taxes and over half of that will be eliminated....so many exist for the sole purpose of extracting money from the flock....what a crock....I see opulence everywhere religion is involved....oh they have soup kitchens....oh they have food drives and clothing collections for the poor....awwww....give me a break....build a bigger church.....drive expensive cars....wear fancy clothes...have expensive fundraisers....and the homeless people just live right down the street on a bench....wow...religion is great.

Religion is responsible for at least have of the wars in existence and the death included....the other half is associated with another GOD.....gold, oil, and diamonds.

So why do they get tax exemptions?

Soul

Your average garden-variety neighborhood church is not rich nor do they belong to "rich" denominations. If they had to pay property taxes on church properties then they wouldn't exist. For every "rich" Catholic church connected to the Vatican there are a dozen small churches with small populations of worshippers. The idea here is to keep church and state separate. The church goers pay taxes as individuals. If they had to pay yet more taxes on church property, you would have government interfering in religion.

The biggest thing to remember about taxes is that we pay them as individuals--always. You hear people say "Big Oil gets tax exemptions!" with righteous fury, for example. Well, first of all, the government extracts more money from a gallon of gas than Big Oil does, and second, who do you think pays the taxes? We do, for every gallon we buy. When the government taxes corporations, we pay for those taxes in the form of higher prices. It's ALL paid by US.

The government does not have the "right" to taxes. They are extracted from citizens, and it's never enough. The government is a bottomless pit. There's ALWAYS a new "program" some do-gooder wants to implement. What we have created here is a "Government Class" of fairly well-paid government employees who have Cadillac benefits, excellent pensions, and steady jobs. It's a gravy train filled often with lavish parties at our expense as can be seen by the GSA and IRS party scandals these last couple of years.

Rather than complain that the government is not extorting enough taxes from hole-in-the-wall churches we ought to be asking what the government does spend OUR money on. There's quite enough waste in government spending now to take care of the deficit. But when we get threads like this the government, as an entity, just sits back and laughs. As long as we are willing to make someone else the enemy, the government can just keep raking it in to whet their insatiable appetite for money.