Church and State and Taxes (News) (Commentary)

As difficult as we all find paying taxes of every kind, it is most annoying to me that a multi-billion dollar (maybe over a trillion dollar) "business" in this counbtry is tax exempt. They are exempt from income taxes, from sales taxes, from property taxes, and if there are other kinds of taxes out there, I'm sure it is exempt from those as well.

The business I am talking about is the "church" business. In order to maintain a separation of church and state, the government does not tax this huge business and it puts a hurt on all of the rest of us. As I understand it, the Catholic church is the largest landowner in the US and when you exempt all of their property, as well as all of the other religious properties in a city, town or state, it takes a tremendous percentage of land off of the property tax roles. Now consider that the income they generate, the salaries they pay, and the things that they purchase are all exempt from income and sales taxes, and we're talking some major, major dollars here folks. The rest of us must pay more because of these exemptions.

(Another problem with this whole process however, is that it puts Government in the role of certifying churches. In order to protect itself from crackpots [normal people who want, more than most, to get out of paying taxes], the IRS must certify that a religion is legitimate, thus denying the principal that government stays out of the religion buisiness. Seems to me if we taxed churches the way we tax everyone else, THAT separates church from state.)

One of the trade offs for religious leaders and "tax leniency) is that they may not use their organizations or leaders to endorse or work for political candidates. Except they can - and do. The Federal Government often looks the other way.

Are things about to change? Might the Government finally put it's foot down and begin to tax churches and religious organizations who endorse, campaign for and even contribute money to political candidates? I sure hope so - it's only right.

From Breitbart.com - click on the link to read more...

Southern Baptist pastor Wiley Drake said Wednesday that he is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service for his endorsement of GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee in a press release written on church stationery. Under federal tax law, church officials may legally discuss politics, but they cannot endorse candidates or parties without putting their tax-exempt status at risk. Most who do so receive only a warning.

Drake, a prominent pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention, said he received a 14-page letter from the IRS on Feb. 7.