Should ANY entity, organization, group...whatever... be tax exempt? If yes, what is the qualifier?

[BlueStreak]

28. Not at all.

Especially if the not-for-profit is actually operating more or less like a for-profit business. Hospitals, for example, are mostly not-for-profit, but how are they any different from the company that makes ball bearings. Health care is important to society but so are ball bearings. If they truly are not accumulating vast wealth in the for of "excess revenues" or real estate, then there should be much to pay on the tax bill anyway.

If a hospital takes in, say, $250,000,000 a year and pays out $249,000,000 to doctors, nurses, pharma companies, medical equipment companies, executives, accounting firms, janitorial services, landscapers, all of whom are for-profit, why shouldn't they pay taxes on that last $1,000,000 that didn't go out in expenses? After all, the hospital benefits from the roads and other infrastructure that the public maintains for them.