The church must pay taxes and conduct business honestly

The church must pay taxes and conduct business honestly
do you agree
according to the code, the church is exempt from taxes
it is immoral and not fair

 

Churches are also exempt from reporting child rapists.

They should have to file their taxes like every other non-profit instead of being given blanket exemption.

 

Aren't you one that constantly banters "separation of Church and State" LOL

 

The tax exempt status for churches is maintained (in the US) via an agreement that the churches will not engage in political speech. I refuse to attend a church that is tax exempt for this reason. There are some seriously evil forces at work in our govt and any church that places financials over the importance of calling it out is not focussed on anything good. I'm all in for making churches pay taxes. Hopefully they'll start collecting tithe in labor, food and community activism instead of federal reserve notes, and start calling out the influences in our horrible govt once more. Of course this is precisely why our govt WILL NEVER force churches to pay taxes. They prefer having the power of censorship over the pulpit.

 

if they stay out of politics, I am ok with a tax-free status, have to pay to play....

 

You think churches are not treated like other non-profits?

 

This seems like a red herring. The vast majority of the time, organizations do not commit that abuse, individual people do.
No one is preventing that child from going to the police or telling their parents, who can then go to the police.
Individuals can be prosecuted in most states for failing to report child abuse.

I see no reason to apply laws to the organization as a whole.

I think people like you are totally misrepresenting the actual issues when you claim the church should be responsible.

The other issue is confessions in the Catholic church, but that is a whole other issue. The abuser won't confess if he knows it's going to have to be reported, so there is really no point to making it a law to require them to report the confession.

 

Ironically political organizations can also get tax exempt status.

In the U.S., political organizations are tax-exempt under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code.
The difference from other non-profits is that donations to political organizations are not considered charitable contributions and cannot be deducted on an individual's tax return. The issue isn't whether they get non-profit status but whether they are classified as a "charity".

 

I notice that so many people in this thread seem to have misperceptions.

 

You think they are?

They are not.

Churches are not only exempted from taxes they are also exempt from filing. Are there any other entities that are exempt from filing?

And note, I do not expect an answer from you or even a response seeing our prior interactions — this is so other readers can see the truth.

 

You basically just said that I am correct that churches are given direct exemption from reporting child rape but you don’t care because it should be up to the small child to address it with their parents. How absurd.

Religion is a plague upon this earth

 

I will have to disagree with you here — they should be treated the same as all other non-profit organizations. They should be required to file and be regularly audited, especially the larger ones.

When we have pastors flying around in multi-million dollar jets and living in literal compounds that is no longer a non-profit.

 

I wouldn't call it an "exemption", since that implies churches have some special exception different from other organizations.

The issue of reporting child abuse is also not really the main topic of this thread. If you want to discuss this in more detail, maybe you need to start another thread, unless Interaktive gives us permission to argue about it.
Otherwise, start a new thread and you can leave the link here.

Here are two other already-existing threads if you want to argue about it:
Holding employers responsible for actions committed by an employee?
Should the Catholic Church have to give any money to abuse survivors?

 

Thank you for admitting you are coming into this debate with more than a little bit of bias.

 

They do. It wouldn’t take two minutes to actually become informed on something
Arizona court upholds clergy privilege in child abuse case

It is relevant to the discussion of conducting business honestly for the church

You are not a mod.

There is nothing to argue about

You didn’t know that churches have special tax rights
You didn’t know that churches have child abuse reporting exceptions

But here you are, still saying neither really exist.

 

I would rather have a little bias than complete and total ignorance on the subject.

Any organization that has the child rape problem the church has shouldn’t also be given exemptions from reporting. Any organization that commits blatant tax fraud shouldn’t be given unilateral exemption.

Religion makes otherwise good people justify evil things.

 

ok, so we can remove the religious exemptions, as you don't think there is any, should not matter right

 

Mostly yes, with the exception of the Seal of Confession, where religion does play some role (although I happen to be against reporting obligations for counselors also).
For the most part, I think the issue is the same whether it's a private company, non-profit, or a church.

FreshAir, I don't think any current religious exemptions do exist (in this area).

 

I literally posted for you the statutes and special exemptions they have. So your debate strategy is now to just ignore evidence if you don’t like it?

 

What exactly are they to pay taxes on? Property taxes aren't a Federal thing, and pastors and church employees who are paid pay the same payroll taxes as anybody else. Property that isn't being used for church purposes is taxed like any other property as well.

As for 'political speech', pastors and Christians have the same rights to free speech as everybody else as well.

Of course the only people sniveling about imaginary 'exemptions' are assorted deviants who have managed to politicize their fetishes and are using public schools and govt. funded institutions to peddle their fetishes to children, using 'tax exempt' organizations themselves, so the hypocrisy meter is off the charts as usual. The real purpose is to censor people who don't approve of indoctrinating children into believing neurotic deviancy and perversion being 'normal' from speaking out.

GLSEN
Is Glsen a nonprofit organization?
A GuideStar/Philanthropedia survey of 110 experts on LGBTQ issues names GLSEN one of the country's top three LGBTQ nonprofits making significant contributions on a national level.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLSEN

Why aren't deviant businesses paying taxes?

 

They are absolutely NOT treated like other non-profits.

 

All churches I've ever been associated with are classified as 501c charitable entities. Do you have a problem with that?

 

I think churches should be tax free if they are engaging in charitable activities like feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless etc. if a church is paying a clergy to preach and convert people and to persuade everyone to vote a certain way then no. So in that regard, only charities should be tax free.

 

How so?

 

Rewriting the First Amendment, are you? Maybe we should remember

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
​

There are two clauses there, an establishment clause and a free exercise clause. Separation of church and state.