It has been said that the Vatican has accumulated a vast amount of property and other holdings in the United States in excess of $800 Billion, sic, no one knows exactly how much.

'Bishops' of huge 'mega-churches' are showing off their fleet s of Rolls and other exotic automobiles.

All tax free.

All things considered, if the church cannot show that its temporal holdings are not furthering the purpose of the church, should these holdings be taxed?

 

Oct 25, 2011 -- 3:33PM, Esdraelon wrote:

It has been said that the Vatican has accumulated a vast amount of property and other holdings in the United States in excess of $800 Billion, sic, no one knows exactly how much.

'Bishops' of huge 'mega-churches' are showing off their fleet s of Rolls and other exotic automobiles.

All tax free.

All things considered, if the church cannot show that its temporal holdings are not furthering the purpose of the church, should these holdings be taxed?

Oct 25, 2011 -- 5:16PM, Ed.W wrote:

So you want to take away a church's 501(c)3 status once they get enough money to covet?

The mega-churches are obviously exploiting the status. $800 billion in land and property holdings is doing exactly what to serve the furtherance of the dictates of Jesus Christ?

Oct 25, 2011 -- 5:16PM, Ed.W wrote:

Are there other charities you'd like to see paying taxes?

Charities and churches are a breed apart, however, some charities are there for the furtherance of the principals......if you want to look at a charity, look at how much actually goes to 'charity' as opposed to 'administration'............

Oct 25, 2011 -- 5:16PM, Ed.W wrote:

How do you know that the preacher didn't buy the rolls with his salary, which was taxed?

I don't know that, but if he did....makes my point..............but actually, he did NOT buy the rolls, the church gave it to him as a 'gift'...it's actually on the church books as church property...

Oct 25, 2011 -- 5:16PM, Ed.W wrote:

Maybe you should have gone to divinity school.

To learn What regards 501(c)3 status?

 

Oct 25, 2011 -- 5:33PM, tfvespasianus wrote:

Contained within the remark  regarding 501(c)(3) status is an interesting point. Briefly, part of the  aforementioned code stipulates that 501(c)(3) institutions are prohibited from direct  involvement in political campaigns.

  

So, removing said status  (and I don't think churches would be in favor of this so it would have to be  done by somebody else) might have... unintended consequences which many might  find unpalatable as well.

 

That being said, there is a  separate, but related controversy in my neck of the woods. In Chicago,  not-for-profit institutions (about half of which in this case are religious  institutions) do receive water and sewage services for free. There are currently  efforts to re-evaluate this deal because there is about $17M at stake. So,  there's that...

The basis of the question was to muse whether those institutions who ABUSE the status should not be taxed.

 

Oct 25, 2011 -- 5:48PM, Esdraelon wrote:

 

Oct 25, 2011 -- 3:33PM, Esdraelon wrote:

It has been said that the Vatican has accumulated a vast amount of property and other holdings in the United States in excess of $800 Billion, sic, no one knows exactly how much.

'Bishops' of huge 'mega-churches' are showing off their fleet s of Rolls and other exotic automobiles.

All tax free.

All things considered, if the church cannot show that its temporal holdings are not furthering the purpose of the church, should these holdings be taxed?

Oct 25, 2011 -- 5:16PM, Ed.W wrote:

So you want to take away a church's 501(c)3 status once they get enough money to covet?

The mega-churches are obviously exploiting the status. $800 billion in land and property holdings is doing exactly what to serve the furtherance of the dictates of Jesus Christ?

Oct 25, 2011 -- 5:16PM, Ed.W wrote:

Are there other charities you'd like to see paying taxes?

Charities and churches are a breed apart, however, some charities are there for the furtherance of the principals......if you want to look at a charity, look at how much actually goes to 'charity' as opposed to 'administration'............

Oct 25, 2011 -- 5:16PM, Ed.W wrote:

How do you know that the preacher didn't buy the rolls with his salary, which was taxed?

I don't know that, but if he did....makes my point..............but actually, he did NOT buy the rolls, the church gave it to him as a 'gift'...it's actually on the church books as church property...

Oct 25, 2011 -- 5:16PM, Ed.W wrote:

Maybe you should have gone to divinity school.

To learn What regards 501(c)3 status?

 

I think all they would need to show is that the holdings are not for any personal use rather than show that they are furthering a gospel message.  But I'm not a CPA.

If a church doesn't mind paying a pastor a million dollars a year, then so be it.  If he wants to buy or lease a rolls then so be it.

I get mileage deductions for my business and the government doesn't care whether it gets 10 or 30 mpg.