The Responsibilities of Tax Exemption
In today's LATimes counterpoint, AU's Barry Lynn and ADF's Erik Stanley debate the issue of tax exemption for churches. Should churches have to pay taxes? Should tax exemption come with federal regulation? Rev. Lynn argues that tax exemption is a privilege not a right:
When any group accepts a tax exemption, it agrees to play by certain rules and accept a certain degree of oversight. Federal law actually makes it more difficult for the IRS to audit churches than other charities. In addition to this modest "no electioneering" rule, for example, tax-exempt groups cannot collect money for a "charitable" purpose and then use it all for the personal benefit of the director and her family (or the pastor and his family).Yesterday's piece was a discussion of the merits of the no electioneering provision of tax exempt status.
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[G]overnment at the local, state and federal level made a decision early in our history to grant tax exemptions to churches and other bodies. The Constitution does not mandate it; and indeed, even ...the Walz case doesn't say that tax exemptions are required by the 1st Amendment. In general, governments believed that churches along with other types of community groups enhanced and supplemented government services such as feeding the hungry, housing those in need of shelter and in general using private funds for public good.