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Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

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Re: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

#11

Post by peterxpark »

bilekas wrote: post #3
black6 wrote: post #2

It's a business, like any other--it just sells something that cannot be redeemed until after death. Let's pull back tax benefits for religious institutions and treat them the same as the rest.

It's not just like any other though, it already recieves huge tax relief. Not to mention the esitmated worth in 2018 at least was 30 Billion $ > The Internal Revenue Service automatically considers churches exempt. The reasoning behind making churches tax-exempt and unburdened by IRS procedures stems from a First Amendment-based concern to prevent government involvement with religion. So it's okay not to pay taxes, b…

By that logic non-profits also should not have qualified to receive relief funds since the 501c3s don't pay taxes either but do serve a social good.

Re: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

#13

Post by pnw_hazor »

bilekas wrote: post #3
black6 wrote: post #2

It's a business, like any other--it just sells something that cannot be redeemed until after death. Let's pull back tax benefits for religious institutions and treat them the same as the rest.

It's not just like any other though, it already recieves huge tax relief. Not to mention the esitmated worth in 2018 at least was 30 Billion $ > The Internal Revenue Service automatically considers churches exempt. The reasoning behind making churches tax-exempt and unburdened by IRS procedures stems from a First Amendment-based concern to prevent government involvement with religion. So it's okay not to pay taxes, b…

US churches have some exceptions related to religion freedom, but otherwise they are conventional non-profit corporations.

Re: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

#15

Post by rbecker »

valuearb wrote: post #9
mensetmanusman wrote: post #4

It’s not a monolithic financial institution in the U.S. It’s a large array of individually operating entities providing local food banks etc.

It's a long running MLM selling "eternal salvation" and spending a tiny percentage of it's revenues on charity for PR cover.

While not given as a percentage of revenue, this post estimates the Catholic Church's charity as anything but 'tiny': https://old.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/6ogy4p/source_...

Re: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

#16

Post by voisin »

danso wrote: post #6

The news peg for this particular story (i.e. why the Catholic Church and not all denominations) is ostensibly the Church's ongoing legal battle and settlements re: clergy sexual abuse, but also the fact that the church's lobbying arm successfully argued an exception for religious organizations to not be disqualified under the rule's dictate "that only businesses with fewer than 500 employees, including at all subsidi…

$50k in lobbying for $1.4B (possibly $3.5B)? Seems like a hell of a ROI.

I’ve never understood why elected officials seem willing to acquiesce to huge pork barrel projects for such little $$ in lobbying. “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Lobbying Dollars”?

Re: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

#17

Post by jt94mf90d »

29_29 wrote: post #10
bilekas wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just like any other though, it already recieves huge tax relief. Not to mention the esitmated worth in 2018 at least was 30 Billion $ > The Internal Revenue Service automatically considers churches exempt. The reasoning behind making churches tax-exempt and unburdened by IRS procedures stems from a First Amendment-based concern to prevent government involvement with religion. So it's okay not to pay taxes, b…

They aren't given tax relief. They aren't paying the thief like the rest of us.

how would society work if the vast majority of working people dont contribute to maintence?

Re: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

#18

Post by exclusiv »

voisin wrote: post #16
danso wrote: post #6

The news peg for this particular story (i.e. why the Catholic Church and not all denominations) is ostensibly the Church's ongoing legal battle and settlements re: clergy sexual abuse, but also the fact that the church's lobbying arm successfully argued an exception for religious organizations to not be disqualified under the rule's dictate "that only businesses with fewer than 500 employees, including at all subsidi…

$50k in lobbying for $1.4B (possibly $3.5B)? Seems like a hell of a ROI. I’ve never understood why elected officials seem willing to acquiesce to huge pork barrel projects for such little $$ in lobbying. “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Lobbying Dollars”?

Yeah it's crazy but I think the short answer is - they aren't giving up their money.

Re: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

#19

Post by klyrs »

abetusk wrote: post #7
bilekas wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just like any other though, it already recieves huge tax relief. Not to mention the esitmated worth in 2018 at least was 30 Billion $ > The Internal Revenue Service automatically considers churches exempt. The reasoning behind making churches tax-exempt and unburdened by IRS procedures stems from a First Amendment-based concern to prevent government involvement with religion. So it's okay not to pay taxes, b…

This is some contorted logic. "We will not privilege religion, so we will give a privileged tax exempt status to religion". Ha, nice, the Satanic Temple is also tax exempt [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Temple

I've been thinking a lot about the Satanic Temple recently. The supreme court has been ferociously eroding the separation of church and state lately. I wonder how they, and the public, would respond to public funding for a Satanic charter school that openly discriminated against heterosexual teachers and forced heterosexual students to undergo gay conversion therapy...

Edit: to be clear, I don't think that it would be a good to do. But for all the fearmongering about the "gay agenda" to make your kids gay, there's a well-documented "straight agenda" that results in a high rate of suicide (and very few enduring conversions) of its victims. If we are equal in the eyes of the law, zero or both must be valid.

Re: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

#20

Post by exclusiv »

rbecker wrote: post #15
valuearb wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a long running MLM selling "eternal salvation" and spending a tiny percentage of it's revenues on charity for PR cover.

While not given as a percentage of revenue, this post estimates the Catholic Church's charity as anything but 'tiny': https://old.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/6ogy4p/source_...

People also forget the huge network of Catholics who contribute their own personal time for the benefit of the local communities (and also the non-Catholics they activate with their local events).

It would be hard to quantify, but in the analysis you posted that's not included.

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