Is it fair that churches pay virtually no taxes? Of course for employees, that being staff, yes, they have to deduct income tax for those people, but why are churches, of any faith, exempt from those same taxes that even their members are responsible for paying, yearly?
Wherever you live, if you’re a homeowner, you pay property taxes based. on a valuation of your home by the county where you live. Some pay more than others, and that’s fair. But churches, of any faith, pay none which if it’s thought about even briefly, means that yes you, the average homeowner is paying more because the religious edifices, pay none,
I know there will be some that say it’s their constitutional right, but there’s nothing in the Constitution that give churches the right to not pay taxes. In fact it wasn’t until 1894 where Congress exempted churches from paying taxes. Whenever I hear, believers, notably Christians, talk about their being persecuted here in the U.S., I consider the privelege that they have that no onle else has.
How does this become favorable to the average citizen? Well, the easy answer is that it doesn’t and that our government deigns to give religious institutions favor where citizens pay, and pay again, whether it’s Federal or State taxes, more especially, those nagging little property taxes that fund not only local roads, but also schools.
Of course any change in the status quo would probably be very unpopular with the electorate no matter how it was explained to them concerning the benefits of all houses of worship just paying their fair share and I wouldn’t expect to see this change within my lifetime. I think i’s worth discussing and the more we can openly talk about removing this privilege, possibly more may be convinced that it is actually the right thing to do.
We should demand an end to special privileges due to religous belief. It’s not that your or my taxes will go down, but it’s fair, that these Houses of Belief pay their fair share.
Conservative Skeptic 
Good topic! Many churches take advantage of the tax exempt designation. I know from experience that a church I was a member of in the past relied on local government food banks to fund their “pantry outreaches” and when you look at the budgets for the churches A LOT of the money is just spent on building and salaries of staff and ultimately they are run like a business because they really are in many cases. Case in point many churches will not work with other churches even in their same denominations because of a fear they may lose members to other churches hence losing tithing revenues.
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Yes, I think that churches should pay taxes. They have shown little willingness to steer clear of attempting to influence the political process, and this was supposed to be part of the arrangement by which they could maintain their tax exempt status. They repeatedly violate this arrangement with few repercussions. I’d say it is time they pay their share of taxes.
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