Should Churches Remain Tax-Exempt?

[Heywood]

Individual members of the church pay taxes too. If they own property they pay property tax. If they buy stuff they pay sales tax. You want them to pay taxes again when they pool their resources to exercise their right to freedom or religion. You want Church going folk to subsidize your tax burden.

You are missing three important points:

1) The individual church members get to deduct their contributions to their church from their taxable income, thus they are not paying taxes on those pooled resources.

2) Other kinds of groups who pull their resources to buy things such as social clubs, babysitting cooperatives, and gardening clubs do have to pay taxes on those pooled resources.

3) Churches are government resource users. They expect police and fire protection and they use neighborhood streets heavily. For zoning purposes they very heavy users like schools and recreation centers (which is pretty much what they are).

So yes they should be taxed like everyone else unless they otherwise meet the definition of a charitable institution. Providing church services and proselytizing should not be a subsidized activity. Subsidizing is establishment. Taxing at the same rate everyone else is taxed is not prohibiting.

Well you already know I disagree with 1. Regarding 2, those other kinds of groups are not expressly protected under the constitution like religion is. Regarding 3, people are governmental resource users and we should tax people....as individuals and not when they come together to perform some activity. Corporations should not be taxed. Instead dividends should be taxed at the individual rate. If a corporation retains earnings then they can issue statements to the stockholders on the amount of dividends they would have had received had the earning not been retained. The stock holders could then pay tax on that.

The purpose of taxing individuals and then taxing people when the come together to preform some activity is to disguise the amount of taxes you are paying. The tax code should be simple and transparent and it should apply equally to everyone....as individuals.

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Proving this thread is true, using this thread?

That sounds familiar...

Read the thread Rob, one guy asked if my argument applied to media companies....so that person clearly understood my argument......which means it had have been laid out in this thread. I replied "yes" Then comes Parker with a silly request for a citation for a conclusion of a laid out argument. If Parker wants to ask for a citation for a fact used to support that argument....such as the Supreme Court saying back in 1819(if my memory is correct) that "the power to tax is the power to destroy" that is something else entirely. However parroting "Citation needed" as he did got the answer it deserved.