Posted by:
Lot’s Wife
(
)
Date: April 19, 2018 01:11PM
*** Admin note ***
The author of this post is not the user who normally goes by "Lot's Wife" in this forum.
To the poster: Please pick an original name and stick to it.
*********************************************************************************************
In the current wag-the-dog world we live in, “they” have a lot of
useful idiots running around demanding that churches be taxed.
Well, let me ask a question: what exactly is going to be taxed?
Churches don’t “make money.” Any legitimate nonprofit, which
includes churches, puts all its monies to work for the benefit of
whatever group they exist to support. Most churches are largely
strapped for cash (not flush with cash, like TSCC).
Legitimate nonprofits don’t finish the year with profits that are
then disbursed to shareholders. FOR profit entities do (ideally).
A FOR profit entity pays taxes on its profits, but legitimate
nonprofits do not, because they have no profits.
Additionally, legitimate nonprofits that run quid-pro-quo
for-profit operations, also pay taxes on those operations’
profits (if they are profitable). FOR profit entities are taxed on
their profits, which is their ncome. Legitimate nonprofits have no
income (including churches).
It simply makes no sense to tax churches, because they have no
income.
Btw, PEOPLE who work for nonprofits (including pastors) ARE
taxed on their personal income. There are certain tax laws that
benefit pastors. IMO they’re a little archaic, and born of
another era in which pastors typically were not wealthy people.
These laws could be revisited, IMO, but pastors are not
churches. Pastors ARE taxed on their income.
Why do I keep harping on “legitimate” nonprofits? Because as
we all know, TSCC is NOT a legitimate church. They SHOULD
be attacked based on the existing rules and laws which they
flout. The rules they flout include pastoral allowances that
might be legitimate if reasonable, but which are squeezed way
beyond realistic (IMO), and which they engage in conspiracy to
keep from becoming public (at least according to some of the
leaked LDS documents, etc).
For legitimate nonprofits, “the organization must not be
organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, and
no part of a section 501(c)(3) organization's net earnings may
inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.”
In the large, the above is the principle that TSCC runs afoul of
(IMO). This is what upsets people, and rightly so. I don't even
know if TSCC is a 501(c)(3) corporation (churches do not have
to apply for such status in order to qualify as a non-profit), but the
principle is the same: the "church" should not exist for the
benefit of certain select people.
So, are you going to change the rules to tax donations at their
face value? The government will get a herculean fight against
that from all nonprofits. Are you going to tax only religious
donations ? You’ll get another herculean fight. These would be
taxes with no precedent, and would be “anti-church.” They
would never pass.
As long as TSCC can hide behind legitimate churches, and
pretend to be one, they’ll benefit from the rules that benefit
nonprofits. The perverse irony is that if you “attack” churches
in the large, then legitimate churches will end up indirectly
defending TSCC as they defend themselves.
The problem is not that churches need to be taxed.
The problem is that TSCC is NOT a church, and neither is it a
legitimate nonprofit.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2018 05:45PM by Concrete Zipper.