Tax the Churches

If churches were taxed like businesses, most still wouldn't pay any taxes. Money is paid out to workers (who pay taxes on that income), used on expenses, and given away to help people. Most churches usually end a year with the same money (or less in today's world) as they started the year with. No profit to tax.

Churches aren't showing record profits.Most churches don't even try to have profits unless they are saving up to buy a building or a piece of land. If church profits were taxed, churches would be unwise to save up money to buy just to have that money be taxed. Instead, they would just get a larger mortgage and avoid any accumulation of money that would be taxed.

Even the corrupt, financially immoral churches probably wouldn't be taxed all that much as they are giving their money out to the pastors and using it on expenses (like jets and new cars). Not saying that is okay. Just pointing out that taxing the churches probably wouldn't contribute all that much to tax revenue.

But churches would have to pay property taxes if they were no longer excluded from taxes.

If people are arguing that offerings should be taxed like sales tax, then that would also give some tax revenue.

Any group, even politically active groups, can create a tax free non-profit organization in the United States. The key is to be non-profit, which churches are.

Now onto the issue of politics in the church.

Personally, I think ministers should preach politics more. But they shouldn't be preaching the politics of either the right or the left. Just the politics that expresses loving the least, loving our enemies, and loving our neighbors. The politics of helping the oppressed and reconciling the haters. The politics of grace and forgiveness. The church becomes tainted when it aligns itself with any political party, but that doesn't mean that the views of Jesus are totally inapplicable to politics.

I stay away from directly addressing politics or candidates at our church, but that does not mean that I don't address issues and stances that would have political ramifications if the listeners to the message actually lived them out. Often, political issues and the Bible intersect one another. I don't see how one could preach the gospel and not talk about issues that would influence politics.