Mormon Church 'earns' 7 Billion per year- Time to Start Taxing the Churches!

[RepublicansRZombies]

Why were they traditionally exempt from paying income and property tax?

Because there was supposed to be a separation of church and state, and they were supposed to stay out of matters of the state.

They crossed the line, and they need to be held accountable.

I have read so many accounts of political bullshit being said in church, being printed in church newsletters...they are not even trying to hide it.

They have no business taking so much tax revenue from us to perpetuate their lies and misdeeds.

Cragun and Reuters estimate that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brings in some $7 billion annually in tithes and other donations.

It owns about $35 billion worth of temples and meeting houses around the world, and controls farms, ranches, shopping malls and other commercial ventures worth many billions more.

The church has plowed resources into a multi-billion-dollar global network of for-profit enterprises: it is the largest rancher in the United States, a church official told Nebraska's Lincoln Journal Star in 2004, with other ranches and farms in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and Great Britain, according to financial documents reviewed by Reuters.

Ranching and farm industry sources say they are well-run operations.

It also has a small media empire, an investment fund, and is developing a mall across from its Salt Lake City headquarters, which it calls an attempt to help revitalize the city rather than to make money.

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/13/13262285-mormon-church-earns-7-billion-a-year-from-tithing-analysis-indicates?lite

Why is this acceptable?

[msongs]

1. fleecing the flock is the most important aspect of organized religion nt

[RepublicansRZombies]

4. they are fleecing the rest of us too, we have to pay higher property and income tax

to cover their asses.

[Politicalboi]

2. Especially these bastards

They helped and funded prop 8 here in Ca.

[RepublicansRZombies]

5. California should be the first to take this up

The churches have become so arrogant, they need to be held accountable.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. As a protection racket, churches are very successful at avoiding taxes and fraud charges.

Not to mention producing faulty products that endanger life and limb.

[byeya]

6. The IRS can handle it if they would only be given the green light. The federal government

has vast legal resources if they would only be allowed by the Sec'y of Treasury and President to enforce the regulations.

[SoapBox]

7. They OWN the State of Utah...

it's bizarre.

And their money crap is even more bizzare.

I want all this religion-gets-tax-breaks garbage stopped.

[RepublicansRZombies]

11. They own the mall in my town thousands of miles from Utah

I think they have been buying everything they can get their hands on.

[socialindependocrat]

8. They benefit from our taxes - They could at least pay to help pay off the deficit n/t

[Skidmore]

9. When priests and other clergy step into the pulpit to tell people who to vote for and what to vote

for, then they need to pay to play. My preference is that the separation between church and state be strictly maintained. We are not a theocracy. I want to see us start tossing that word around more because the notion that one's religious practices are being discriminated against cuts more than one way. Your freedom may very well be oppressive to me. Keep those practices in your home and your congregation, whatever form it takes.

[RepublicansRZombies]

20. well said!

[Wellstone ruled]

10. The Cult also

manages so called Charitable Remained Unitrust's for it's wealthy members;i.e. Willard Mitt Romney and Family to the tune off Hundreds of Millions and pay zero taxes. I want a deal like that for all of us and not just the one-half of one per cents. F---en thieves and shilocks.

[RepublicansRZombies]

12. seriously absurd what has been going on- but I am glad Romney exposed it

Now we need to demand an end to that shit!

[WCGreen]

13. The for Profit Businesses are taxed....

It doesn't pay real estate taxes or income at the state and federal level on Churches and educational stuff. But all their businesses should be on the tax roll...

[RepublicansRZombies]

14. the business then donates the profit back to the church- no taxes required

a huge money laundering and tax avoidance scheme.

[RepublicansRZombies]

15. for every 10 people that tithe, they get a full income tax free!

Imagine how much money they make every Sunday with their churches full of hundreds of people.

Why are we allowing all of that money to go tax free.

The people that donate pay less tax because of it, the church pays no tax, the priests pay no tax...WHY!

They are using the money they are collecting to buy politicians, if we don't raise some hell about this, who will?

[RepublicansRZombies]

16. I thought this idea would be more popular after what the churches were doing this past election

n/t

[RepublicansRZombies]

17. Has the mormon church paid to hide my post?

n/t

[Shining Jack]

18. Tax them.

I'll never forget what they did with Prop. Hate.

[RepublicansRZombies]

19. Catholic priests take tax free donations to pay lawyers to hide their pedophile crimes

Doesn't this piss people off?

[kentuck]

21. And how much of that was laundered as it was for Mitt Romney??

Under the guise of a "tax shelter"?

[RepublicansRZombies]

22. yes

and there are thousands more like him

[km659426]

23. tax churches

Petition to start taxing churches: http://wh.gov/XC6B

[hrmjustin]

24. Welcome to DU.

[cbayer]

25. Welcome to DU. Are you proposing that all non-profits be taxed if they are

involved in politics, or just churches?

[RepublicansRZombies]

28. Koch brothers are using non profits to launder their money and control our elections

Might do us some good to tax the non-profits for a while.

OUR non-profits aren't laundering millions of dollars, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[cbayer]

29. The law currently applies to all non-profits, including organizations that promote

social justice and work for the poor. These organizations often take political positions that will help them do their work or benefit those that they serve.

Money laundering is a crime and those committing that crime can and should be prosecuted.

So, I ask again - are you proposing that the tax exempt status be stripped from all non-profit groups or just churches?

[RepublicansRZombies]

32. OUR organizations work for the poor, give all their assets to the poor, so no income, no problem

And the right wing are laundering millions, our organizations are a pittance in comparison, and if taxes were raised to proper levels, our organizations wouldn't be needed nearly as much.

[cbayer]

33. The donations given to those organizations would be taxed. It's not about assets,

it's about the money they collect.

Again, do we want this to be the case for all non-profit organizations? I agree that the IRS needs to more closely scrutinize organizations to ascertain if they are truly non-profit and if they are promoting candidates as opposed to causes.

But this is a slippery slope and calls to change the tax status may have serious unintended consequences for those that have the most to lose.

[RepublicansRZombies]

35. if you spend all the money you take in, you have no income to pay tax on

The Republicans are seriously gaming the non profits right now, they have a lot more to lose.

[cbayer]

36. Yes, you do have income. Everything you collect is income.

Expenses may be deductible to some extent, but they do not make your income go away.

Non-profit means just that - that you do not make a profit off of the money that you bring in. By definition, you spend it all on whatever it is you do. That gives organizations a tax exempt status. The law would have to be changed to tax all non-profits.

While the RW non-profits that you refer to may have more to lose financially, the poor and disadvantaged have the most to lose overall if the law is changed at this time.

You can not change the law for some and not all.

[Initech]

31. To quote the late great Frank Zappa:

"Tax the churches. And tax the businesses owned by the churches."

[Skink]

26. The Vatican probably does these things

[Auntie Bush]

27. Taxing the churches will help pay off the deficit.

When they take political sides they shouldn't be exempt from taxes.

[cynatnite]

30. Check it out...

In its 1970 opinion in Walz vs. Tax Commission of the City of New York, the high court stated that a tax exemption for churches "creates only a minimal and remote involvement between church and state and far less than taxation of churches. [An exemption] restricts the fiscal relationship between church and state, and tends to complement and reinforce the desired separation insulating each from the other." The Supreme Court also said that "the power to tax involves the power to destroy." Taxing churches breaks down the healthy separation of church and state and leads to the destruction of the free exercise of religion.

http://www.latimes.com/la-oew-lynn-stanley23-2008sep23,0,4272340.story

[RepublicansRZombies]

34. the faith based initiatives spent our tax dollars giving it to churches who are electioneering

I think a line has been crossed and this issue needs to be revisited.