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Should churches pay tax?
Perspective
All Votes
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Organizations generally – charitable or not – should never be tax exempt.
Pros
Cons
A larger tax base due to taxing all money transfers could mean lower individual taxes.
The current system should be replaced with a far more efficient straight flat tax. The current system is unfair and inefficient.
A non-profit organization will tend not to pay income tax anyway, since those are paid on profits. A non-profit that does not spend the large majority of its income is not a non-profit.
Donations to charitable organizations should not be tax exempt.
All non-profits should pay taxes as they enjoy the same infrastructure benefits as any other entity.
Non profits offset the tax burden of the government by supporting its citizens more efficiently than the bureaucracy could. They utilize donations of time, money, and products from the public, freely given by those who can afford to do so, in order to support the needy or improve the community. These organizations and the individual donors should both be able to receive a tax break for doing work that improves the society and relieves the burden on the government to have to do the same work.
Organisations that do public good (which should be judged without regard to religious considerations) are desirable to the state and often ultimately a benefit to the public purse, and should be encouraged and supported by the state. The most practical way to achieve this is via tax exemption.