I thought that non-taxable donations to religious groups had to be for the sole purpose of "doing religious works". But clearly the Mormon leadership are using the money to personally enrich themselves. Not just Mormon leaders of course, but all fraudulent, sleazebag religious organisations.

Can someone explain how the bastards get away with this, whereas the rest of us have to pay tax on the money we legitimately earn?

What it's spend for doesn't matter. Since the donors don't care, the feds don't worry about it.

It should be taxed as any other business.

Churches, and corporations masquerading as churches do use infrastructure, rule of law, emergency services etc that we all pay for.

One needs to never underestimate the political power of churches, particularly LDS Inc, as it runs a state theocracy.

Hopefully the next generation will change this.

I have often wondered what Joel Osteen or Rick Warren's tax returns look like, probably similar to Mitt's.

It's not just churches. Look at the Form 990 for any 501c3 and you'll see that many of them spend upwards of half a million on executive salaries and that the majority of their funds go either toward fundraising or compensation.

For example, to pick two
Greenpeace:
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global/usa/planet3/pdfs/inc-990-09.pdf

(note the amounts for fundraising, payment processing, etc., as a part of the budget)

And the NRA Form 990:
https://archive.org/stream/NationalRifleAssociation2010IrsForm990/2010_NRA_IRS990#page/n0/mode/2up

Again, lots on fundraising and compensation.

I think that if you want to level the playing field, either eliminate 501c3's in their entirety or make religions file a 990. To treat religions differently (in a different way than they are presently) would just make it look like you're picking on them.

Just consider it a gullibility tax.

Hahahahahhaha.

I love it.

I think that there should be a limit on how much you can deduct for a church donation -- perhaps 3% of your income. I also think that all churches that take in anything above a set limit should be required to donate to various charitable endeavors in their communities.

Rick Warren does not take a salary from his church, and has paid his church back all the salary he ever earned. He lives on 10% of the profits from the sale of his books, everything else he donates.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlaura/2013/03/21/pastor-rick-warren-is-practicing-what-he-preaches-and-getting-ready-for-retirement/

http://rickwarren.org/about

The Clinton Foundation is getting a lot of flack right now. By one account, only 10% of their intake goes to actual charitable activity.

Big man can do whatever he want with it.

I seriously object to the fact that I am paying towards supporting every jackass, scamming religion in my country--none of which I agree with--out of MY taxes,from which I am NOT exempt from paying.

See my comment upthread. You're not just 'paying' for religions. You're paying for PETA to advocate vegetarianism, for Greenpeace executives to fly out and lobby Washington, and for the NRA to put on range safety courses.

And, incidentally, the fact that 501c3's don't pay taxes don't necessarily mean your taxes go up, so it's not, from a strict accounting standpoint, 'costing' you anything.

Again, lashing out at religions does little good. There are lots of wasteful 501c3's out there that are arguably worse than churches.

Alpiner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> See my comment upthread. You're not just 'paying'
> for religions. You're paying for PETA to advocate
> vegetarianism, for Greenpeace executives to fly
> out and lobby Washington, and for the NRA to put
> on range safety courses.
>
> And, incidentally, the fact that 501c3's don't pay
> taxes don't necessarily mean your taxes go up, so
> it's not, from a strict accounting standpoint,
> 'costing' you anything.
>
> Again, lashing out at religions does little good.
> There are lots of wasteful 501c3's out there that
> are arguably worse than churches.

I don't object to my taxes going to towards legitimate charitable organisations. Going towards assholes like the NRA, then yes I do object. Obviously we can't pick or choose.

BUt while there are many charities I do support in principle there are NO religions I endorse. As bad as most Chriatian organizations are, I particularly object to supporting the woman-hating Islam in anyway.

Only the organization is tax exempt. All employee compensation is taxed. Monson files a personal tax return. Ministerial tax returns are their own sub-specialty in the IRS code.

You would have to define "doing religious works". Each religion is going to have its own definition. What ever money the GAs get today is supposedly not from tithing but returns from investments made by the church over the years.

Which leads one to wonder, where did the CoJCCoLDS get the money to invest in the first place?

Who knows? Probably from 19th century member donations. But at least it's not from current member donations

It's all about the tax code. Simple as that.