What Should Obama's Priority be After Inauguration?

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American Atheists would like to extend hearty congratulations to our ground-breaking  new President!  We are all hopeful that, under your leadership, this country will rise from the recession ready for the future.  

The most important thing that you must accomplish as President is to fix the economy.  This includes reducing wasteful spending and making sure the money spent is used properly and for the greater good. This need not be done at the expense of the taxpayer or the “newly needy.”

In fact, a simple adjustment to the tax code would dramatically improve the situation: remove the IRS exemption for religious institutions. In other words, tax the church.

This is not a new idea.  In 1875, President Grant pleaded to a Joint Session of Congress:
   "I would call your attention to the importance of correcting an evil that, if permitted to continue, will probably lead to great trouble in our land....it is the accumulation of vast amounts of untaxed church property...so vast a sum, receiving all the protection and benefits of government without bearing its portion of the burdens and expenses of the same, will not be looked upon acquiescently by those who have to pay the taxes....I would suggest the taxation of all property equally, whether church or corporation."

President Grant was correct – right now, every taxpayer in America is paying higher taxes than they need to pay, because religious institutions pay none. Between the churches, temples, synagogues, mosques, and meetinghouses, there are more places to pray than there are to buy pizza, and none of them pay property taxes.  

But there is more, because church-owned property is not just for churches. This untaxed property can also be used for schools, daycare centers, even cell towers – anything, or nothing at all.  

Church income, which is largely unregulated and undeclared, can be substantial enough to build huge mega-churches and bankroll tremendous salaries for preachers, which is also untaxed. Additionally, many churches – too many – are taking advantage of the system, using tax exemptions for selfish or even antisocial goals (e.g.,  Branch Davidians, the “Holy Land” terrorist front, Scientology, and multi-millionaire televangelists).  

Every taxpayer is, in effect, supporting every religion and cult via forced taxation – an unseen, unquantifiable “religion tax.” It’s illegal and it’s wrong.

It’s illegal because it offers benefits to religious institutions but not to their secular counterparts; it’s wrong because it assumes that every religious institution benefits society by merely existing. Churches need not perform any service at all in order to get these massive exemptions; they merely need to declare themselves religious to be tax-free.  

This can and must change, and the results will be substantial and overwhelmingly positive. By removing the tax exemption for religious institutions from the IRS nonprofit code, one of the following three changes will take place at every religious institution:

1) They will pay their rightful taxes. This, in turn, will benefit everyone in the community by lowering the tax burden, producing more household income which taxpayers can then turn around and donate to the church of their choice. As an aside, this will also allow religious organizations to express political views, as many so desire.

2) They will earn nonprofit status by performing real charity work for the community at large (note: “outreach” is not charity, but merely another word for “marketing”). Many churches are already doing this, and as long as they can prove their charitable activity in the same manner as other nonprofits, this would continue. However, the possibility of losing tax exemption would be a strong stimulus for churches that are not earning their status to step up their charity work, again helping the community at large.

Churches have been and will continue to be useful to society on the whole, and such earnest organizations should keep their rightful place beside other tax-exempt organizations that serve community and country. By eliminating the religious exemption you would implement a fair and equitable tax provision that benefits everyone except those who abuse the system or leech from it.  

President Obama, it’s time for America to stand and work together toward the common good. That means everyone shares the burden, even if they preach about a god, and everyone has the same choices. By giving churches the choice of charity or taxation, you create an inevitable benefit to the community by reducing the tax-load and/or increasing real charity. In the end, it’s not a bad choice at all.  

United we stand, Mr. President!