Abuse of the First Amendment
The
first amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion, ...".
-
Well, tax exemption is a law respecting an
establishment of religion, and not just one, but all who claim to be
religions!
- Excluding tax on donation income that goes to the poor is
one thing, but exempting all taxes??? No way! It is a clear violation
of the Constitution.
- This is a case of give them an inch and they took a
mile!
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair fought for the separation of church and
state and won the removal of prayer from public schools. She was driven
out of Maryland by vicious harassment including the stoning of her
house by her local neighbourhood religious residents. With this kind of
inhuman treatment of opposition to government favouritism for the
religious, those who would challenge the constitutionality of exempting
religions from taxes fear for their lives.
- This bleeding of our
government strongly inhibits our ability to provide necessary services
and benefits for the unfortunate. The funds that could go for these
benefits and emergency have been drained off by the religions since the
first exemptions for charity began in 1894.
- Exempting expenses for
charitable giving is one thing, but it has been manipulated so that the
religions get all income exempted and only the rich get to exempt
charitable gifts (One must itemize deductions, and have enough to make
the itemized total bigger than the standard exemption.
- This means you
must have paid a lot of money for interest on a home, state and local
taxes, and giving. The vast majority of people with lower incomes,
especially renters, do not have enough of these expenses to qualify,
and, consequently cannot take the tax deduction for charitable gifts.
- [for 2013
the Single = $5,950, Married Filing Jointly = $11,900, and Head of
Household = $8,700] A single person making $30,000, would have to have
taxes, interest, and charity contributions totaling $6,000 to be able to
take a charitable deduction, that's 20% of his or her income. Nobody
that I know that poor can afford that much.
- The poor are discriminated
against by the rich and the inequity in this charitable deduction scheme.
Who benefits? The religions and the rich.
- They
bleed funds which
could serve the poor, as well as everybody for public transportation,
education, and public research leading to new products and services.
- Where do these funds go? They go into the pockets of the rich,
and into the wealth and well being of religions and the clergy as well
as all the property these organizations collect while only a trivial
share actually ends up in the hands of the poor.
- But they sure make big
noise about the few they do help.
- Moral of the story? taxes have been
abused by the religious and the rich at the expense of all the rest of
us.
- Tax the churches and every property and income that is not actually
dispensed as help to the poor and unfortunate.
- If it is used to
maintain the religion, such as building and maintaining a church, TAX
it.
- If it is given away to the poor and unfortunate, then, and only
then, exempt it.
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