Leading up to April 15, millions of Americans can be found scrambling to file their taxes for themselves and their businesses, unless they operate a church. According to U.S. tax law, religious organizations are not required to pay taxes because they're considered non-profit institutions and because they provide a public good. However, many are skeptical of this reasoning, arguing that churches can be enormously profitable and that the only benefits they provide are to their own members. Should churches keep their tax exempt status?
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).
The fact is that a church is just another kind of club, but it gets special treatment because the club preaches about a mythology or religion (same thing). In order for any other club to gain tax-exempt status, they must adhere to rules and regulations, declare their income, and prove their worth to society as a whole. Religious clubs get treated differently ONLY because they talk about religion, instead of stamp collecting or today’s best-selling books. This is clearly illegal, and it’s clearly 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.
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