Trump wants to get rid of Scientology tax exempt status

Germans

LINK

But since his thread is titled better:

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I never understood why any religion should get tax exempt status.

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Because they are non-profits. Plain and simple. If you want to get rid of tax-exempt status for religions, then you must do so for all non-profits accordingly. Otherwise you are simply a commie who hates organized religion and wants to beat them down.

Religious institutions and churches are the foundation of American exceptionalism. They started some of our first schools, hospitals, and outreach programs. They helped preserve wildlife and parks before the government helped. Without them, you'd lose over half of hospitals in the country. Thus disrupting a system already stretched very thin.

These churches provide food banks, help build houses, supply free volunteer labor, etc. Also, many of their parishioners are good citizens.

Then one of the biggest reasons: these Churches are funded and fueled by parishioners who are already taxed! The money a person donates to a Relgion/church has been taxed via income taxes and property taxes. What they donate, is what hey have left. There isn't some goal to launder money. All that religious people want to do is donate so they can worship somewhere and for the large majority, do good works. To tax on top of that is nonsensical.

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They all need to pay taxes. Too many crooks hide behind religion.

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Should remove every non-profit's tax exempt status.

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Too many crooks hide behind Government. And that is the only entity that would benefit. That money would not go to the citizens, nor to helping them.

If you support taxing non-profits, that is the end of the American charity system.

If you support taxing non-profits, that grows Big Governemnt. Government will have to take the place of the charities it destroyed. It will have to take over all the hospitals. It will have to find a spot for all the students in its shitty schools. It'll have to fund Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, etc.

If you support taxing non-profits, you are a big government commie who thinks Governemnt is the solution to all of our problems.

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needs to get rid of it for all religions.

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I'm ok with this as long as all other non-profits lose their status as well.

Good.

Now lets see if he actually does it.

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needs to get rid of it for all religions.

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Yes! Let's get a piece of all those profits these thousands of little churches generate. Nothing but tax havens for the rich.

It's silly that we are the most generous country on Earth (by a mile), that so much of that goes to churches, and the government is not getting a piece of the action.

Bunch of idiots.

I'm a believer that churches should pay the local real estate taxes that support infrastructure. Not school taxes, but only that portion that supports the creation and maintenance of utilities, roads, bridges, etc.. that allow them to operate. Otherwise, they are piggybacking on the taxes paid by everyone else.

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I'm a believer that churches should pay the local real estate taxes that support infrastructure. Not school taxes, but only that portion that supports the creation and maintenance of utilities, roads, bridges, etc.. that allow them to operate. Otherwise, they are piggybacking on the taxes paid by everyone else.

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Do non-profits currently have to do this? If not, do you think they should as well?

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Yes! Let's get a piece of all those profits these thousands of little churches generate. Nothing but tax havens for the rich.

It's silly that we are the most generous country on Earth (by a mile), that so much of that goes to churches, and the government is not getting a piece of the action.

Bunch of idiots.

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Yeah, I totally agree that Churches like the one run by Cam Newton's father should get tax exemption. Please. Ministers and Rabbis are just as crooked as everyone else.

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Wrong. Churches are funded by donations that come from citizens who have already been taxed. That's double taxation

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By this definition, so is every single business in the U.S. that people use their disposable income at.

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Wrong. Churches are funded by donations that come from citizens who have already been taxed. That's double taxation

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Ummm....