Why are churches tax-exempt?

Ah you want to tax the income of God, jajajajaja.

Business is Business but Churches are not really a business. They are non-profit groups such as United Way or The Red Cross in the way they function. If you taxed churches they would not have the funds to do many of the things they do. Run hospitals, homeless shelters, food banks, etc. Churches do more charity work then the Government and I sure would not trust the Government to run these charities as our Congress would instead give themselves a raise if we started taxing churches before they would fund shelters and such.

Churches are needed to help people both spiritually and physically. Many who would not be able to pay for such services if they were a profit business.

Now for the few churches who are more business then non-profit and the leaders are living overly well, I believe that they IRS will get them as they are usually watched really carefully. And scandals from a few churches do not make all churches bad either.

Some of the answers make the claim that the reason church isn't taxed on their income is because they get all their money from donations.

this is incorrect. Most churches sell books, tapes, videos, sell tickets to events, and buy land, buildings, and obtain MILLIONS of dollars of PROFIT.

Most churches barely make it... and it doesn't seem like a bad thing that they are not taxed on their income, however when the "donations" make it so that the "staff" can live MUCH better than the average American, I think they should be taxed. Preachers shouldn't be living in million dollar homes, driving hundred thousand dollar vehicles, and wearing expensive clothing.

If the church resembles a multi-million dollar business, it should be taxed as such.

Churches are most certainly NOT non-profit organizations.

Many of them have assets in the millions of dollars.

Non-profit means that you don't make profit--it has nothing to do with how you get your money in the first place (ie donations). There is no requirement for the Church to give away any donation's over and above their operating costs (which is exactly what non-profit means). Just being a religious organization is the basis for their tax-exempt status.

By accepting tax-free status, Churches (at least Christian churches) are breaking on of Jesus's most famous instructions: Render unto Caeser that which is Caeser's.

>>>They are a business with operating expenditures and income<<<

You rightly mentioned expenditures and income, but there's one thing you didn't mention -- profit.

Businesses make profits (at least if they're run right). But churches do not.

Churches are by no means the only tax-exempt organizations out there. There are lots of them, and most of them are not religious in nature.

There are all sorts of tax-exempt organizations out there; they are tax-exempt because they don't exist to make a profit, but rather to serve the public good.

Donations have nothing to do with it. The money that a church takes in is used primarely for day to day operations and most of the money left over after that is sent to charities. Televangalists however.. oh, I won't even start on them. They just make all christians look bad.

I think there is an unofficial mutual agreement between them, since we pay taxes for protecting our material well being, the church helps the state by developing and maintaining our spritual being which go hand in hand with the concern of the state.

The thing is...we pay the psychologist a boatload of money for guidance....umm the Church is free and thus a non profit entity...The church runs off of donations which comes from people's hearts...The church doesn't charge a fee for every sunday mass or something...lol

Excellent question.

Churches should pay taxes.

They don't under a sophisticated argument based in an underlying greed.

This will change with enough scandals.

The reason: separation of church and state. You can't have separation of church and state and then demand that they contribut to the state. The Founding Fathers recognized this. They were smart people; I liked them.