And how would that affect my taxes?
Assuming this is a real question, and not an attempt to start a snarkfest…
You start your own religion by talking to people about it and convincing them you have some insight or process they need.
You start you own *church *by incorporation, forming a board of directors, by-laws, etc. If you will be soliciting or accepting charitable donations, you have to file a separate charitable registration with the Secretary of State (not sure if this is nationwide or only in some states.) Then you decide if you want to pursue 501(c)3 status with the government, giving you the tax benefits of being a not-for-profit. If you choose this, there are laws you have to follow, including things you can or cannot say at your pulpit about politics (you may not officially endorse a particular politician, for example.) It is strongly recommended that you get a good lawyer to help with this process - the State will check to make sure the forms are filled out properly, but they won’t check to make sure that what you’ve proposed is legal. If they approve it and it wasn’t legal, it won’t stand up in court.
Your own personal taxes are not largely affected, unless you donate all your personal money to your church - in which case some or all of that can be a tax write-off (minus the value of any goods or services you recieve in exchange, total amount tax-deductible limited by law). If you’re a 501(c)3, then, like any not-for-profit, your church’s earnings much be carefully accounted for and any surplus must be redonated or invested in specific ways. If you’re a 501(c)3, then you are specifically prohibited - as are any other “members, Elders, officers, or the members, Elders, or officers of the Church, or any other private person” - from getting rich on your church, except that the church is allowed to compensate actual work. You can’t skim from the collection plate, but your Ministers may accept a salary for ministerial work, which I believe must be published information.
In actual fact, the process itself tears many would-be-churches apart, including the last one I was a leader in. It’s often easier to meet unofficially, but then you don’t get the same legal protections a church or churchgoer may (like not getting your kids taken away because of your “weird” ways, or being able to refuse vaccinations or military service, or allowed to wear your religious symbols at school.)
Google church incorporation for more detailed information. This is a good place to start.
You could read the story of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. He was a moderately successful science fiction writer in the late 40s. There are several witnesses to the fact that he said that if you really wanted to make it big you should start a religion.
Be that as it may, he created a pseudo-science called dianetics. As I recall (I read about it when it was published in around 1950, so that is going back a ways), it involved going back with hypnosis to the earliest memories, which eventually meant into the womb, and “clearing” the memories of various traumas, of which birth must have been the most traumatic. Hubbard convinced John Campbell, the editor of Astounding (now Analog) Science Fiction and the magazine published an article (or maybe a series of articles) on dianetics. They raised some interest and then, to my knowledge, the subject died. Until it was reborn as Scientology. I don’t know anything about the transition from a publication in a Sci-fi magazine to a religion, but I’m sure it has been written about.
Hubbard grew very rich. Later in life, he went back to writing sci-fi. I never read any of his later stuff, but my brother told me it was pretty good.
This post has been totally factual, but it is almost certain to start a flame war and the thread will have to be closed. Sorry about that.
Actually I want to start my own religion–like I said, not my own church…I dont want no churches in my religion. In fact, I’ve basically already come up with my own religion only I dont have a name for it, and it isnt recognized by anyone (other than myself). But my problem is that there are certain things about my religion that are against the law…so I need to get my relgion recognized somehow so that I can practice it without breaking the law.
RIGHT!
Those are the facts as I too recall.
As far as tax deductions are concerned you have to jump through the satisfactory completion of the various required formalities and forms required by the IRS.
Now you have a real problem. First to get a sizeable number of followers of like mind to convince the government that you have a real religion that requires breaking the law in order to observe or practice its rites. Then the hoops and hurdles to get IRS approval of you/and or your religion as a NPO. :dubious:
Rots of ruck.
Then you’ll absolutely have to form a church. You may not call it a “church” - you may decide to call it a “house of worship” a “meeting circle” or “Cheeseheads Anonymous”, but you’ll definitely have to go through the legal hoops of incorporation and legal church status. Which will be hard as hell to do if you’re already promoting illegal activities. I don’t know of anyone who’s managed to do it (or even attempted to do it) for an activity that’s already illegal. Things like peyote or other substance-utilizing ritual relgions are able to get away with it because they have historical use since before such things were illegal. Things like fundamentalist Mormon-offshoot polygamists haven’t even been able to do it, and they have a lot of money and power in their hands, I hear.
If your question is about legal stuff, you need to concern yourself with legal procedure - that’s “seeking church status”, not just making up a new religion.
Despite what people may think, calling your activities “religious” is not a get-out-of-jail free card.
However, on the bright side, prison is a nice quite place to study your religion, with lots of potential converts 
What kind of practices? I’m curious. Why do you feel that they are crucial to your belief system/structure?
Or do you mind telling?
It sounds like you need to be prepared for some jail time for yourself or your fellow worshippers. It seems like getting things changed from illegal status only comes from long, long struggles with police and courts.
Are you “apostolic”? In other words, are you, aside from as a means to the end of getting The Man to let you engage in the activities condoned by your religion but condemned by the state, interested in “spreading the word”?
I, too, have my own. I also have some rather cynical things to say about the whole “bring the word unto the people” thing that you need to think about before you go there, if going there is on your agenda.
(not that you asked or anything)
But my religion doesn’t recognize the IRS as a legit organization.
Ah.
Uh-huh . . .
Hey, that’s no problem. You don’t have to believe the IRS is legitimate. You just have to pay your taxes on schedule, and if you don’t you go to jail. You can put your tax check in an envelope with “Taxation is slavery! Unconstitutional theft of property! Repeal the 16th Amendment! IRS==ZOG!” stamped all over it. Like a pimp, the IRS doesn’t care as long as you get your ass back on the street and get them their money, bitch. Claim that the IRS is illegitimate all you like, this is a free country–as long as the IRS still gets their check.
See, your religion can claim that the laws and rules and taxes and all the stuff The Man tries to shove down our throats is bullshit, man. And that’s fine…but it still doesn’t give you a get out of jail free card. You still can’t have sex with 12 year old girls, or smoke crack, or violate building and zoning codes, or drive without a driver’s license, or not pay your taxes just because your religion says you can.
Umm, why would you care about the effect on your taxes if you don’t believe the IRS is legit?
Better question, why in hell am I responding to this?
Actually my religion doesnt think money is legit either. I mean really, what is money? YOu see some digits on a paycheck…a ball player signs a contract fro 6 million dollars a year…a push of a button on your computer electronically adds or delets money into an account…Is any of this real? What if I hacked into a banks computer and changed all of the accounts, or what if I steal a credit card and charge a bunch of stuff on it? Who pays for that? Money is a ghost. It doesnt really exist. THe government spends it eventhough they dont have it–How can you spend something you dont have? How can you use something that doesnt yet exist? Large companies promise their workers retirement money, then they say, ooops, we dont got it, and its gone. Did it ever really exist? The workers thought it did. They made life decisions based on its existence. Then it wasnt there. :smack:
You built a religion out of not understanding basic economics?
No, my religion is about not buying into the basic economics of our modern corporate consumer culture.
I know you have a compulsion to crap on people’s GQ threads with snarky unrelated comments, but if you’d just stick to crapping on the linguistics threads, you’d be sticking with something that you sort of understand, and it would be that much easier for the rest of us to avoid you. Thanks in advance.