General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There's one problem that the United States doesn't have [View all]Igel
(35,300 posts)you can't deduct your charitable expenses, either--whether your local Baptist church, the food pantry, or your public radio station.
I haven't been able to deduct my charitable expenses since Reagan-era tax code revisions rolled it into the list of deductions you can itemize; before that, you donate $5 you'd be able to deduct that $5.
There was a category of social group that was non-taxed early on, as soon as income taxes became a thing. If it's a group of people that pool their funds for a purpose other than making money and returning investment income to the "investors," it was non-profit.
Associated Students of UCLA back in the 1990s was such a group--organized before groups had to register to be tax exempt, it was grandfathered in. It was a kind of coop--bookstore, student services. As a student coop, if you bought a cinnamon roll and coffee in Kerckhoff Coffee House in the morning the cashier would obligatorily ask, "Are you a student?" Say yes, you weren't charged sales tax; say no, and you were--because, well, it was a voluntary (in some sense of the word) collective. You pay your dues and you're a member of an organization that exists to provide you services but make no profit.
Unions were the same (but some SCOTUS placed it in the "super dooper" social group category).