Wasn't there just a post about not posting political stuff? How does this interest tinkerers or hackers?
Montreal is taxing churches (2017)
71–80 of 335 posts
Re: Montreal is taxing churches (2017)
#72IMO this post should not be on HN. Per the guidelines [1] "stories about politics" are off-topic. I would consider this political for obvious reasons.
Re: Montreal is taxing churches (2017)
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds fair but why can't these things just be a not for profit? Don't know about the US law, but often in my country there are for-profit non-profit.
> Sounds fair but why can't these things just be a not for profit? They are. There is no difference tax-wise for a non-profit and church.
>They are. There is no difference tax-wise for a non-profit and church.
While both churches and non-profits don't pay tax, they are treated differently. Secular non-profits have to account for the money coming in and out of the organization, while churches don't have to account for the donations or expenses.
Re: Montreal is taxing churches (2017)
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Charity organisations usually get tax exemptions too. Maybe make that the only tax exemption, and have religious organisations prove that they are charities.
They don’t have to be charities. It should be enough if they are nonprofit (which most churches are I hope).
No one really knows since they don't have to tell anyone how they get money or how they spend them
Re: Montreal is taxing churches (2017)
#75Churches get a bad rap these days, for many reasons. I want to take a minute to defend them. Right away, I want to say that I am not defending religion-driven bigotry, nor megachurches, nor abuse. I don't know about Canada, but in the U.S. churches are still where communities meet, where people connect with the spiritual world, and also the ones doing most of the "heavy lifting" on any kind of charity activity. They…
> where people connect with the spiritual world In the USA, this is quickly becoming an obsolete understanding of religion. Regular church attendance is down from 70% to just over 50% in the last 20 years, according to Gallup. People are leaving the churches. The real question is what will replace them. If people need community, build community centers. There are other solutions that do not rely on continuing to prov…
You should see some Soviet community centers before thinking they can replace anything.
USA is highly uneven. In some states like Florida you can see churches on every other corner, and they are very active and developing, serving not only as community centers, but also as halls, child day care, hospitals, schools, galleries etc. No freaking "community center" can replace that.
Re: Montreal is taxing churches (2017)
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds fair but why can't these things just be a not for profit? Don't know about the US law, but often in my country there are for-profit non-profit.
> Sounds fair but why can't these things just be a not for profit? They are. There is no difference tax-wise for a non-profit and church.
Alright, so all churches doing charity work now set up a non-for-profit. Problem solved?
Re: Montreal is taxing churches (2017)
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't you only tax profits? If a church isn't making any, then there'd be nothing to tax?
I don't know about the US tax system, but at least in my experience here in Australia, not every expense incurred by a business or partially-taxed non-profit is necessarily deductible. For example, I formed a company with some friends for the purpose of work on a single contract, and the expenses we incurred in incorporating the company were only deductible at a rate of 20% per year over 5 years, so we ended up havin…
Thats for items which depreciate in value over a multi year period right? I know that you were only in business one year but the tax system isn't really designed around 1 job incorporated companies.
Re: Montreal is taxing churches (2017)
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Sounds fair but why can't these things just be a not for profit? They are. There is no difference tax-wise for a non-profit and church.
Afaik churches in the US doesn't even have to report anything, so there's no way to know where the money is from and what they are being used for. That's a pretty big difference
Even a church ought to be accounting where is moneys are going from and to... I have no qualms with the government being able to inspect those records too.
To me, reporting makes sense. For an organisation as big as a church, employing a few accountants seems like value for money simply because then fraud will be deterred.
Re: Montreal is taxing churches (2017)
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
But non-profits have to pay property tax, right? I don't think religious institutions have to pay property taxes. Ok, I looked it up: “states subsidize religions to the tune of about $26.2 billion per year by not requiring religious institutions to pay property taxes for property worth about $600 billion. This subsidy is of particular interest because property taxes pay for services such as firefighting and police, w…
> But non-profits have to pay property tax, right? No, non-profits do not have to pay property tax. So by that measure states also subsidize non-profits. And your math does not take into account the amount of services religions provide residents. If you went by the internet religions do nothing except take money, but if you visit the real world, religions are the backbone of social services in the US.
Sad
Re: Montreal is taxing churches (2017)
#80Churches get a bad rap these days, for many reasons. I want to take a minute to defend them. Right away, I want to say that I am not defending religion-driven bigotry, nor megachurches, nor abuse. I don't know about Canada, but in the U.S. churches are still where communities meet, where people connect with the spiritual world, and also the ones doing most of the "heavy lifting" on any kind of charity activity. They…
They also spend a lot of money and effort on promoting their own religion and interests. They could easily create subcharities that are seperate entities designed to do the charitable work while being taxed on their non charitable areas.