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[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 146 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

And this, folks, is why we should tax religious organizations…. ~~Like every other country I know of.~~ (edit, apparently I knew less than I thought I did. I think what I did was conflate a 'church tax' with churches paying income tax. apparently that's a thing where the state collects your tithe for you... if you attend or whatever.)

[-] Zippit@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago

Why don't they do it? There's no logical explanation for it.

[-] Tyfud@lemmy.one 57 points 2 years ago

A long time ago, it was so that they could use the additional resources for helping the needy and less fortunate instead of the government. The idea being a Church was a community organization and would know better than the government what the community needed.

In order to get the tax credit, the church agreed to never get involved politically with anything.

Fast forward to now, and churches are violating that agreement in a big way

Now they deserve to be taxed.

[-] Zippit@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

Thanks, I forgot about the background completely. I agree, be it a mosque, synagogue, church, ... tax them all.

If they make money, they should pay, like everyone else.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

they can deduct actual charitable contributions, for things like running a soup kitchen, and stuff. but that's subject to auditing, and not at all allowed to go into 'charitable funds' that dish out to the board members.

[-] Thorry84@feddit.nl 11 points 2 years ago

There is actually more history behind it. Back in the days when the local king would collect taxes from his subjects, churches wouldn't have to pay. This was because taking money from the church was considered a sin. Whilst donating to the church was a way to absolve yourself from sins. The church would take care of your immortal soul, if you'd just continue to pay them. This lead to a well funded church and no taxes being paid by the church.

How anybody ever agreed to this I don't know. We've invented something called an immortal soul, which is what you actually are instead of your body. We've also invented something called hell, which is endless suffering for your immortal soul. If you don't follow the rules, which we've invented btw, your soul will end up in this hell. One of the rules is give us money.

But then people would just simply say, I've never followed your rules, guess I'm fucked, no point in following the rules now. But wait, we've got a special deal if you call within 30 minutes and give us money. We can fix your soul so it isn't fucked and you can try again to follow the rules. We would also like you to tell us what you did wrong, so we can use it to blackmail you, I mean so we know what part of the soul to fix.

[-] silent2k@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

For the same reason we don’t tax the rich. Corruption.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Historically, the church was the source of social safety nets in society. in the modern era, that's changed to government-ran safety nets (well fare, social security, etc).

there was also some even older precedence of the church running some of the government, so that was payment for that.

[-] charonn0@startrek.website 5 points 2 years ago

What are some countries that tax religious orgs? I honestly can't think of any.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

It seems I made a mistake in that assertion, or missremembering the last time I looked into it. regardless i was wrong about other (western) countries not including religious orgs as tax exempt.

[-] ohlaph@lemmy.world 99 points 2 years ago

$5 million fine, eh? That's merely the cost of doing business.

[-] alvvayson@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago

It's just so politicians can say they levied multimillion dollar fines. And the voters are placated.

[-] SoleInvictus@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

If the average APY is 5%, it's about a day of interest.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Yeah we need to set fines to amount attempted to savelikelihood of getting away with itpenalty modifier. They do this math before committing these crimes, the fine needs to actually deter them

[-] charonn0@startrek.website 57 points 2 years ago

tl;dr:

     $32,000,000,000 fraud
          $5,000,000 fine
[-] HexBee@lemm.ee 44 points 2 years ago

So they were charged a 0.016% transaction fee.

[-] figaro@lemdro.id 4 points 2 years ago

Ah yes, 5m of the 150+B in the bank.

That's ... Nothing

[-] Jaysyn@kbin.social 52 points 2 years ago

Is that even a month's interest on $32B?

[-] Spitzspot@lemmings.world 42 points 2 years ago
[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Fucking hell. The penalty should be like 90% above for anything over $5M. So a tidy $28.8B. Bet they won't try that shit again.

[-] lars@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago

Literally feel like I got the wind knocked out of me

[-] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 24 points 2 years ago

Just like Jesus taught us….no wait.

[-] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 34 points 2 years ago

Step 1: Jesus

Step 2: Joseph Smith

Step 3: prophet

[-] Thaumiel@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

Dum dum dum dum dum!

[-] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago

Ah yes, the cost of doing BUSINESS

[-] Reality_Suit@lemmy.one 17 points 2 years ago

Their not just screwing kids. They're screwing everyone.

[-] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 years ago

The priesthood was invented when the first knave met the first fool.

[-] LegionEris@feddit.nl 2 points 2 years ago

Nah. The first knave got away with "Holy shit! Look!" frantic pointing all day long. It was later knaves who invented religion. The fools got wise to the basics.

[-] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

It's a Voltaire quotation, I should have mentioned.

[-] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

What’s new?

[-] DeadNinja@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

They have one extra m in their name

this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
586 points (100.0% liked)

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