End Church Tax Exemption

END CHURCH TAX EXEMPTION.

YOU PAY MORE, SO THEY DON'T HAVE TO.



With the US elections fast approaching, it's a good idea to keep vigilant for any breach by religious organisations of 501(c)3 rules and restrictions. Specifically to endorse or campaign against any particular candidate violates the rules and leaves the guilty organisation openly risking their tax exempt status.

This is highlighted in the case of Branch Ministries Vs Rossotti where full page advertisements were taken to discourage the voting of Bill Clinton. The only problem with this case is how obviously unambiguous it is, leaving much still to be tested in the courts.
Ironically when claiming they had been individually prosecuted and claimed their selection was a violation of the equal protection clause of the fifth amendment, the church produced "HUNDREDS" of articles by religious organisations endorsing or campaigning against specific candidates in an attempt to show how other religious organisations had breached the rules but retained their tax exempt status.

In the USA the church is not required to file forms 990 as other 501(c)3 organisations are.  Nor are they required to make these available for inspection upon request as other 501(c)3 organisations do.

In effect the financial arrangements of the church remain completely unchecked and wide open to all manner of corruption. Churchgoers will be unaware of the percentage of donated monies used for lobbying government over helping the poor and needy.  The amounts paid out to silence victims of child abuse remain concealed, along with all their revenue and expenditure.

IRS rules prevent any organisation from engaging in actively supporting or campaigning against a particular political candidate. Failure to abide by the IRS rules can lead to the revocation of an organisation as is shown in the case  cited above.
It is estimated anything from a quarter to a half of a typical American city or town's "public" buildings are owned by the church and despite many if not most being used for business purposes and not religious matters, they still enjoy complete exemption from property taxes. The property assets of the church runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars.


For some perspective here, property taxes at the state level make up approx 65% of revenue, and at this time of austerity for every person and every service by government, it's time this unfair privileged exemption is challenged and revoked from all religion.

Keep an eye out for any clear violations of the IRS rules where it concerns the endorsement or attack of any particular candidate. Keep newspaper cuttings, bookmark pages containing evidence of breaches and the breaches will be submitted to the IRS for their consideration, and action.

CHURCH TAX EXEMPTION,  IS CHURCH SUBSIDY. A subsidy paid in part by atheists to help religion afford its contributing $390 000 000 annually to lobby government on issues such as abortion and bioethics, to name just two.

Does this please you?