Tax Exemptions Available to Churches
Tax Exemptions & Religion
Ken Reid / Getty Images
by
Austin Cline
Updated March 13, 2019
America’s tax laws are designed to favor non-profit and charitable institutions on the assumption that they all benefit the community. The buildings used by private schools and universities, for example, are exempt from property taxes. Donations to charities like the Red Cross are tax-deductible. Organizations which engage in medical or scientific research can take advantage of favorable tax laws. Environmental groups can raise tax-free funds by selling books.
Churches, however, tend to benefit the most from the available, and one important reason is because they qualify for many of them automatically, whereas non-religious groups have to go through a more complicated application and approval process. Non-religious groups also have to be more accountable for where their money goes. Churches, in order to avoid possibly excessive entanglements between church and state, do not have to submit financial disclosure statements.
hostile government would find it more difficult to interfere with an unpopular or minority
religious group. Small local communities sometimes have bad track records with showing tolerance towards new and unusual religious groups; giving them more power over such groups would not be a good idea.
tax exemptions ended up putting a greater tax burden on the poor who could least afford it. He feared that one day the people might turn against their wealthy churches and demand restitution.
The idea that wealthy churches have abandoned their true mission also bothered James Pike, a former Episcopal bishop in San Francisco. According to him, some churches have become much too involved with money and other worldly matters, blinding them to the spiritual calling which should be their focus.
Some groups, like the American Jewish Congress, have made donations to local governments in place of the taxes which they do not have to pay. This shows that they truly are concerned with the entire local community, not simply their own members or congregation and that they are interested in supporting the government services which they use.
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