The tax exempt status for churches goes back to the founding of the country, over 200 years ago. We’ve never taxed churches.
The income tax only goes back to the early 1900s.
Churches aren’t exempt from paying pay taxes because they are non-profits. Churches are exempt, because they are religious institutions.
Of course, in a bigger sense, why should any non-profit (religious or otherwise) pay taxes just because they take a political stand?
Let’s say you and I decided we want to support a candidate (a third-party candidate named John Tre). So, we form and organization to put up billboards across the country that say “Vote for John Tre!” We collect money from other people that support John Tre (thousands of small donations), and spend all the money we collect putting up billboards.
We’re a non-profit. We don’t make any money. Yet, because we’re exercising our political free speech rights and endorsing a specific candidate, the government (via the IRS) will take some of the money we’ve collected (in the form of taxes) which will reduce the number of billboards we can put up (and thus reduce our political speech).
Is that right?
We’re still a non-profit. We don’t actually make any money. We just collect money for a specific purpose, and use it for the that specific purpose. Is it right for the government to penalize us monetarily, because we took a political stand?
Churches aren’t exempt from paying pay taxes because they are non-profits. Churches are exempt, because they are religious institutions.
That’s right except that once a church claims a 501 c3 status they cease to be a church in the eyes of the government.