This would be an awesome law to pass here in the states. Another post made me look for a picture of the Preston, England temple. Found this article.

http://www.mormonlawyers.com/2008/11/preston-england-temple-loses-tax-exempt.html

This would be a great idea here in the states. Have churches pay taxes on all buildings not used for public worship.

Makes perfect sense. Why should the public pay for buildings not open to the public. Lawmakers could do the same thing here if they had the cojones.

and neither should all the other LDS INC Hell house temples.

I believe ALL CHURCHES should pay property taxes... to help defray the costs of Police & Fire protection that they receive.
Otherwise, non-church goers are subsidzing those who attend, Plain & Simple.

LDS doesn't like subsidies? Wrong; they Love 'em!

Back in the 1960's the London temple was threatened with the same TAX --However it was threatened that if they were taxed they would remove the temple "BRICK BY BRICK " and move it to SWEDEN --Can you believe that ???

JB

...they provide some social "good" that replaces government's load in providing that good.

Religion shouldn't get a blessing because they build junk, regardless whether the junk is open to the public.

The only reason a church building should be exempt from tax is if it provides a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, etc. Otherwise, it's just a corporation designed to make money in the form of donations.

Good for the Brits!...should be here too...

They pay tax on their mission home and temple properties, which are not "public houses of worship". They do get an exemption on their meetinghouses, which are open to the public.

Because temples are not public houses of worship, temple sealings are not legally valid in the UK and must be preceded by a civil ceremony (which is legally binding). UK members thus have a civil ceremony (either in a town hall or meetinghouse) followed the same day or asap with a temple sealing. The one year wait imposed on US couples who want to include everyone at a civil ceremony is waived in the UK, as well as in countries where only a civil ceremony is valid (France, Germany, etc.).