Think for a minute. You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn't?
Nothing could possibly go wrong with that concept, even under a Democratic administration, right?
I question why any church or religious organization should get special treatment from the IRS or tax code.
You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn’t?
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Investigate Scientology for Organized Crime, or RICO, or kidnapping, or the other laws they break.
“You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn’t?”
Uh, tax exemption is about “valid religion”? How about taxing all churches or taxing NONE. Taxes are punishment anyway. There should only be sales tax. That’s all. Interstate sales = tax goes to the Feds. Intrastate sales = State tax. Period. No more confusion. No more bureaucracy. Simple. You have already paid ALL YOUR TAXES in the counter or during online checkout. No back-taxes. No refunds. No deductions. No NOTHING. Simple.
In theory I agree that I don’t want bureaucrats deciding what religions are valid.
But in practice, we already have them deciding all sorts of similar things - like whether TEA Party organizations deserve tax exempt status, whose tax returns should be audited, etc.
It is only conservatives who play fair. We need to clean house in order to allow us to play fair. Following the rules and behaving like gentlemen when the opposition behaves like street thugs is a recipe for extinction.
Liberals, communists, terrorists, fake religions, and all sorts of other scammers consistently and frequently abuse the letter of the law. It’s time to clamp down on this and fight fire with fire. For the record, I don’t think islam qualifies as a religion, either.
Yet, we have jihadis hiding behind the “religion” of a murderous, totalitarian cult.
>>>You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn’t?
Um, they do now.
And if you can’t remove Scientology from that list, you either can’t remove anyone; or, you don’t know what it’s all about.
Scientology is a cult, it is not a religion!
“You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn’t?”
That’s exactly what they do already. You think every group of crackpots that claim they are a “religion” should AUTOMATICALLY get religious tax exemption just because the group of crackpots SAY they are a religion? Because that’s the alternative to having “federal bureaucrats decide what is a valid religion”.
And BTW, it’s an absolute travesty that Scientology received tax exemption: the only reason they got it was because thousands of members sued hundreds of IRS employees personally and the IRS Commissioner did a deal with the “church” that if they were granted tax status, the “church” would have all of their members drop the thousands of lawsuits. Naturally, it was papa Bush that caved, you know, the same papa Bush who just announced he voted for Hillary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_status_of_Scientology_in_the_United_States
Good points. What the dems will say is — hey who are we to judge what is or is not a religion? The dems will just tax all of them and let God sort it out.
they got there tax exempt status through bribery and blackmail
Think for a minute. You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn’t?
Yes. even if it came down to all churches being taxed. They would get very little from real churches as they give it all away to missions etc..
#2 It was Bill Clinton who took a bribe from the cult that gave them the tax exempt status.
I know, it is hard to believe that Bill Clinton took a bribe!
Please! Scientology is NOT a religion. Not even close.
It isn’t a valid religion, that’s the point. Take a deep breath and come back.
You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn’t?
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It has always been up to the IRS to decide.
I don’t see this as an anti-religion move as much as an anti-corrupt 501C-3 issue. Too many N/Ps are primarily enrichment schemes for their leadership, leaving just pennies on the dollar towards their “charitable purpose”. Can’t say that outfit like The March of Dimes didnt give us a hint: only 10% of their income trickled down.
I heard of one church where they give secular sermons one day a week and sort of religious sermons on another day - maybe so that they would qualify for tax exemption. Their main beliefs have nothing to do with religion, just with "social justice."