• CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Something I’ve thought about is that religious tax exemptions in America aren’t to prevent the non religious from taxing the religious. It’s to prevent Christian majorities from taxing other religions out of existence.

    • cdf12345@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      The trade off was no tax on churches for no tax on higher education. Trump is going after colleges so it’s time to go after churches

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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      3 days ago

      it’s super hard though to convince the IRS your non-christian org should be tax exempt than a christian one. in wording, it seems at face value like what you’ve said. but in practice it’s the single greatest tool the christian hegemony has in this system of oppression.

      • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Scientology had it figured out - all you have to do is infiltrate and doxx the IRS, then your multi level marketing scheme religion is official.

    • quetzaldilla@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      We can change the tax code to allow tax exemptions for religious organizations with income/assets below a certain thresholds, with punitive measures (actual jail time) for hiding assets.

      • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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        3 days ago

        Or we could require that churches actually do some good with the money they collect in order to qualify for tax exempt status. There should be no religious exemption, if a church wants tax exempt status they should have to do something to deserve it like charity.

        • quetzaldilla@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I think you are absolutely right.

          It would be much simpler to just extend to them charitable expenditures, and only that.

          The more charity they do, the less taxes they pay.