Religion

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)

65. The 1.4 million dollar church down the street from me doesn't pay property taxes.

Wed Mar 5, 2014, 01:56 PM

Mar 2014

Property taxes fund local services that the church consumes:

Police
Fire
EMS
Stormwater Run-Off
Utility access
Road access/maint

I pay all of these things through my property taxes, and since they pay none, I pay a share of theirs as well to gross-up the budget totals to fill the actual demand. And they do it, at a much higher rate of consumption than I do. The impermeable surface square footage of my house and driveway is a pitiful fraction of the building and parking lot they maintain.

What taxes do they pay, that you referred to? Because they are sure as hell freeloading off me at the local tax level.

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Tax Exemption for Churches may disappear in the near future. [View all] el_bryanto Feb 2014 OP

Thank "god"! Walk away Feb 2014 #1

First off, you are attributing the characteristics of a small subset of religious organizations to cbayer Feb 2014 #4

The 1.4 million dollar church down the street from me doesn't pay property taxes. AtheistCrusader Mar 2014 #65

Like I have said, there are some exemptions and I fully support better cbayer Mar 2014 #67

Charitable services can and do exist without churches. AtheistCrusader Mar 2014 #69

Of course there are and groups that provide charitable services cbayer Mar 2014 #71

Agreed. AtheistCrusader Mar 2014 #73

I believe, but am not sure, that the stadium could take a tax deduction cbayer Mar 2014 #74

Those churches just need to pull up their bootstraps and survive by themselves DontTreadOnMe Mar 2014 #76

Who might that have been? Did it help? cbayer Mar 2014 #77

There are all kinds of churchs el_bryanto Feb 2014 #5

Non Profits should end tax ememption immediately as well yeoman6987 Feb 2014 #33

My church uses it's money to feed homeless LGBT youth, feed people with HIV/AIDS, tutoring for hrmjustin Feb 2014 #49

Highly doubtful FBaggins Feb 2014 #2

Should a religion be allowed to deny marriage to same-sex couples el_bryanto Feb 2014 #6

We don't have the option of "allowing" them to practice their religion. FBaggins Feb 2014 #8

So the religion can deny the marriage service to people it feels are unworthy of it? el_bryanto Feb 2014 #9

Of course. FBaggins Feb 2014 #13

Well done! You blew up all of his "points", and ended it with the last part. cleanhippie Feb 2014 #21

The point i was trying to make was that the Tax Exempt Status of Churchs may be untenable el_bryanto Feb 2014 #24

! cleanhippie Feb 2014 #26

The rules about tax exempt status skepticscott Mar 2014 #62

As far as the state is concerned, the church ceremony is meaningless. stopbush Feb 2014 #31

'should' is different from 'is likely to' muriel_volestrangler Feb 2014 #34

It's fine and dandy for a church to refuse to marry anyone. LiberalFighter Feb 2014 #17

Well you may get your way fairly soon on the Tax Exempt front. el_bryanto Feb 2014 #18

No one, NO ONE, is advocating for or trying to force churches to marry anyone. cleanhippie Feb 2014 #22

From the post I was responding to. el_bryanto Feb 2014 #23

"... marriages that even applied outside their church." cleanhippie Feb 2014 #25

From your response above, el_bryanto Feb 2014 #28

-facepalm- cleanhippie Feb 2014 #35

You're just sad. Pathetic really. el_bryanto Feb 2014 #36

You must be looking in a mirror if you see sad and pathetic. cleanhippie Feb 2014 #37

GROW THE FUCK UP! nt el_bryanto Feb 2014 #38

Lol! Calm the fuck down and do try to act like an adult. cleanhippie Feb 2014 #39

Admit your mistake el_bryanto Feb 2014 #40

Admit your inability to comprehend larger points. cleanhippie Feb 2014 #43

OK - The larger point seems to be that Liberal Fighter feels that el_bryanto Feb 2014 #44

I would not support forcing churches to marry anyone. LiberalFighter Feb 2014 #46

Nods - I would agree with that myself - disentangle the two. el_bryanto Feb 2014 #47

As long as religious groups meet the criteria for 501(3)c corps, cbayer Feb 2014 #3

You are correct, but some are advocating for candidates and it's not enforced. longship Feb 2014 #7

There's doubt within the IRS whether the rule can survive a court challenge. FBaggins Feb 2014 #10

I'd like to see that battle happen. And it should. nt longship Feb 2014 #12

Not if we would lose FBaggins Feb 2014 #14

That is very true and I put that in the hands of the IRS. cbayer Feb 2014 #11

You have taken a more moderate position on this in the past here. longship Feb 2014 #15

As long as there are loopholes, some are going to find ways to use them. cbayer Feb 2014 #16

Churches need to lose their public charity status LiberalFighter Feb 2014 #19

Do you think the same should apply to all non-profits? cbayer Feb 2014 #30

It depends on the purpose of the non-profits. LiberalFighter Feb 2014 #45

You are treading on very thin 1st amendment ice here. cbayer Feb 2014 #50

How does it violate their freedom of worship or speech? LiberalFighter Feb 2014 #51

By not allowing them to benefit from the same rules as every other non-profit, cbayer Feb 2014 #52

They are only a non-profit because religion was included in legislation LiberalFighter Mar 2014 #53

I don't believe that is correct. cbayer Mar 2014 #54

How would it be a 1st amendment breach? LiberalFighter Mar 2014 #58

Because you would be excluding religious groups based solely on religion - cbayer Mar 2014 #59

Not every organization is tax exempt or qualifies for non-profit status. LiberalFighter Mar 2014 #60

That is correct, but they all have to meet the same criteria to achieve that status. cbayer Mar 2014 #61

No they don't LiberalFighter Mar 2014 #63

I do not believe that is the case. Can you provide any further information on that? cbayer Mar 2014 #64

Really? If you were standing on solid rock wouldn't you have LiberalFighter Mar 2014 #75

AGain, I have done some research on this and not found anything that would indicate cbayer Mar 2014 #78

It is the "exempt purposes" requirement where the issue arises. eomer Mar 2014 #79

It is obvious that you didn't even bother reviewing publication 1828. LiberalFighter Mar 2014 #80

So, I get to pay for all city services that feed into their building AND AtheistCrusader Mar 2014 #66

Well, I guess you could lobby for an increase in your taxes to cover the charitable and community cbayer Mar 2014 #68

Or, we could scale their non-profit status to just the charitable services AtheistCrusader Mar 2014 #70

They are bound by the same rules as any other non-profit or charitable organization. cbayer Mar 2014 #72

The government isn't dictating church "practices". kestrel91316 Feb 2014 #20

The tax exemption is useful in that it highlights the venality of organized religion Bluenorthwest Feb 2014 #27

So you favor preserving tax exempt status for Churches? el_bryanto Feb 2014 #29

It's useful to see that all large organized religions take 'religious exemptions' for Bluenorthwest Feb 2014 #32

It would seem to me that church rental income, completely unrelated to the 501(c)(3) purpose, struggle4progress Feb 2014 #41

As long as they keep dragging church into government libodem Feb 2014 #42

I don't the Churches will be loosing tax exempt status anytime soon goldent Feb 2014 #48

I think church tax exempt statuses should be left alone. hrmjustin Mar 2014 #55

I think stronger enforcement of established 501(c)3 regs would help a lot. (nt) pinto Mar 2014 #56

That is the bottom line. The problem is with the IRS. cbayer Mar 2014 #57