…in the United States? If so, I’d love a link. Thank you.
Not by any politician with smarts.
Seriously, this seems like a paranoid rumor.
Forget it.
The background lies in the IRS being a bit more aggressive than in the past about enforcing the rule that religious NFPs may not endorse candidates, though they may endorse policies. (“Vote pro-life” but not “Vote Smith”; “Don’t vote pro-choice” but “Don’t vote for Jones”)
Sure; lots of far-left parties probably support this. However, none of them are in power in the US.
The term ‘far-left’ has been rendered useless by the right’s use of it to describe even the Democrat party. Which parties specifically are you talking about here, the commies?
Generally? Or specific churches?
Inspiration Networks is being denied tax-free status by South Carolina; it’s the broadcasting vehicle for Morris and David Cerullo.
Democratic Party, please.
If they take it away, won’t they just get the tax-free status of non-profit organizations? It’s almost as good.
Is this why the Mormon Church hasn’t had its tax-exempt status questioned for its support of and push of Proposition 8?
I was wondering about churches in general, not specific churches. It seems like I’ve seen a lot of people suggest it and a lot of people say they’d vote for it, but nobody’s moving to do it.
I’m just interested in knowing about any such movements, not debating it. Thanks everyone.
Not when it’s being tarred as ‘far-left’. 
You mean the use of it by the Publican Party?
Aren’t churches already treated just like other charitable organizations, tax-wise?
Any parties which espouse Leninism, Trotskyism, Maoism, Stalinism, Kimilsungism, etc. are hostile to religious organizations; wherever they’ve been in power elsewhere in the world they’ve tended to dismantle legal rights enjoyed by churches, and in many cases the churches themselves. Of course, such parties operating in the US have very little political influence, and are unlikely to gain office, even at a local level, at any time in the forseeable future.
Yes. They’re all 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations.
Which only answers their status as regards federal income tax.
There is a broader common treatment of them as exempt from all taxation, prevalent in most of our legal structures.
The problem here is that, ignoring the popularity of the move, it would mean that corruption in religion would go up a few notches because at the end of the year these big churches have a 20 grand tax bill to pay.
So expect more mindless proselytization, more black and white views, more angry views, more hate, more pressure to donate, perhaps a return to “get out of hell” waivers with purchase, etc, etc to get more people to join and donate more to pay for the property taxes. I think theyre best off where they are.
All taxation?
Churches pay tax on unrelated business income like other non profits. They are exempted from payroll tax (if they elect it), but most employees then pay the payroll tax themselves; only certain church employees can elect to be fully exempt and that exemption means they will not receive social security benefits. Churches would pay any federal excise taxes that would apply, but generally don’t deal in the kind of products that have excise taxes.
State taxes vary, of course.
In Washington state and most of Washington’s cities, non-profits are taxed like any other company. Membership dues and contributions are not subject to tax, but any sales of goods, revenue received for services, etc. would be subject to sales tax and business taxes just like a for-profit company.
Actually, I was thinking about taxation on the land their churches occupy. Property tax, that’s what I was thinking of.
Since property taxation is local, wouldn’t this require thousands of individual local movements, or at least 50 state movements?