Taxing
churches or exempting them from taxes is a growing debate in multiple societies
and all indicators tell that states are hungry for huge taxes that could come
from huge church properties and incomes.
There’s
a growing desire to have churches pay taxes as you might have noticed in media
debates that reflect the state’s agony for losses of big sums of money due to
tax exemption on churches.
Today, churches are not required by the law to submit an
application for tax exemption or pay the application fee – it is automatic that
churches don’t pay taxes.
Those
who support tax exemption on church argue that the practice keeps government
out of church affairs which upholds the Protestants’ great idea, the separation
of church and state.
The
Standing for Freedom Centre published an opinion in September 2021 by the famous
US Republican party member with the title: “The power to tax the church is the
power to destroy the Church”
The
story was immediately removed about four days after publication. We tried to
reach the Standing for Freedom Center to know what happened to the article but
they have never responded.
But
in summary, the story was profoundly rich in attacking the idea of taxing
churches, describing it as evil as allowing government interference in
religious affairs.
On
the other hand, those who oppose the tax exemption on churches, those who
support imposing taxes on churches say that in tough economic times like this
one brought by Covid mandates, governments cannot afford to forego taxes worth
billions of dollars every year which can come from churches.
Others
support taxing churches as one way of punishing the Church for not supporting sodomy
and the refusal to endorse homosexuals’ marriage as holy as man and woman
marriage.
Among those who condemn the church for refusing Sodomy is a US
Democrat politician Robert Francis O’Rourke (also known as Beto) best known for
his 2018 campaign for U.S. Senate, and Democratic presidential candidate for
2020 elections.
According to O’Rourke, churches should incur taxes because they
don’t accept homosexuality and, to him, allowing Sodomy is allowing freedoms of
“everyone”.
In
2019, O’Rourke said “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for
anyone or any institution or organization in America that denies the full human
rights, and the full civil rights, of everyone in America”
According
to O’Rourke, not allowing sodomy marriages should implicate churches to lose
the status of tax exemption in a nation founded on Protestant ideals of freedoms
and separation of church and state.
How did tax exemption on churches come?
The
Roman Emperor Constantine (306-337), after his government went to bed with the
Roman Catholic Church (which many call Christianity), declared tax exemption on
the church among other things including declaring Sunday as a day of rest.
Medieval England (5thC -14thC) also exempted the church from taxes, based on
the rationale that the church relieved the state of some governmental
functions, and therefore deserved a benefit in return.
It
was a win-win relationship.
But
the most significant event that brought tax exemption on churches is the
English Statute of Charitable Uses of 1601 upon which the modern tax exemption
for charities is based.
Before
1894, churches in the US had tax-exempt but it wasn’t official until the
federal income tax exemption in 1894 (at a time of the great awakening that saw the rise of missionary work in Africa).
On May 4, 1970, the US Supreme Court upheld property tax exemptions for churches, declaring them to be in accordance with the US Constitution, holding that taxing churches would cause government interference in religious affairs.
We’ll keep updating you on whatever is going on about taxing the churches even at the level of individual states around the world.
Related story here.
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Faith Reporters
Email: faithreporters@gmail.com
May God bless you
Lord keep us their lambπππ π«
ReplyDeleteLord keep us thier lamb.
ReplyDeleteThe church is a holy house of God that shouldn't involve those business monetry things
ReplyDeleteInstead of governments Aiding churches in terms of money so as to expand them and keep inculcating a Sense of Godliness among people now they want to suck them... The judgement day is about to strike
ReplyDelete