When it comes to tax exemptions for religion, I’m in favor of removing them all.
Religions should be treated as non-profits, if they don’t want to pay taxes they need to file paperwork that shows the money is being used for expenses or charitable purposes, and there should be transparency to ensure that if they’re doing shady shit like sending donated money to Italy or paying pastors millions or buying private jets, then at least that information is public.
Make them legally split into two entities - one that does the religious stuff and one that does the charitable stuff. The latter is a non-profit and can be treated like any other charity. The former should be taxed like any other corporation. The religious side can of course donate to the non-profit and get the accompanying tax break for charitable donation if it wants, but then that funding has to be used for charitable purposes.
When it comes to tax exemptions for religion, I’m in favor of removing them all.
Religions should be treated as non-profits, if they don’t want to pay taxes they need to file paperwork that shows the money is being used for expenses or charitable purposes, and there should be transparency to ensure that if they’re doing shady shit like sending donated money to Italy or paying pastors millions or buying private jets, then at least that information is public.
honestly in most places this would be sufficient, but in america I think we need to just ban it all for a few decades first.
Make them legally split into two entities - one that does the religious stuff and one that does the charitable stuff. The latter is a non-profit and can be treated like any other charity. The former should be taxed like any other corporation. The religious side can of course donate to the non-profit and get the accompanying tax break for charitable donation if it wants, but then that funding has to be used for charitable purposes.