Author: Edward A. Zelinsky Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0190853964 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 281
Book Description
This book explores the taxation and exemption of churches and other religious institutions, both empirically and normatively. This exploration reveals that churches and other religious institutions are treated diversely by the federal and state tax systems. Sectarian institutions pay more tax than many believe. In important respects, the states differ among themselves in their respective approaches to the taxation of sectarian entities. Either taxing or exempting churches and other sectarian entities entangles church and state. The taxes to which churches are more frequently subject - federal Social Security and Medicare taxes, sales taxes, real estate conveyance taxes - fall on the less entangling end of the spectrum. The taxes from which religious institutions are exempt - general income taxes, value-based property taxes, unemployment taxes - are typically taxes with the greatest potential for church-state enforcement entanglement. It is unpersuasive to reflexively denounce the tax exemption of religious actors and institutions as a subsidy. Tax exemption can implement the secular, non-subsidizing goal of minimizing church-state enforcement entanglement and thus be regarded as part of a normative tax base. Taxing the church or exempting the church involves often difficult trade-offs among competing and legitimate values. On balance, our federal system of decentralized legislation reasonably make these legal and tax policy trade-offs, though there is room for improvement in particular settings such as the protection of internal church communications and the expansion of the churches' sales tax liabilities.
Author: Son Lupardus Publisher: Independently Published ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 58
Book Description
Considering that churches and religious organizations qualify as tax-exempt organizations in the United States, one might assume that religious clergy and ministers themselves are exempt from income taxes. But this isn't the case. Devoting your life to God does not necessarily exempt you from the taxman. The clergy must pay income taxes just like everyone else. This section gives information about which system (SECA or FICA) is used to collect social security and Medicare taxes from members of the clergy (ministers, members of a religious order, and Christian Science practitioners and readers) and religious workers (church employees).
Author: Alain De Botton Publisher: Signal ISBN: 0771025998 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 298
Book Description
From the author of The Architecture of Happiness, a deeply moving meditation on how we can still benefit, without believing, from the wisdom, the beauty, and the consolatory power that religion has to offer. Alain de Botton was brought up in a committedly atheistic household, and though he was powerfully swayed by his parents' views, he underwent, in his mid-twenties, a crisis of faithlessness. His feelings of doubt about atheism had their origins in listening to Bach's cantatas, were further developed in the presence of certain Bellini Madonnas, and became overwhelming with an introduction to Zen architecture. However, it was not until his father's death -- buried under a Hebrew headstone in a Jewish cemetery because he had intriguingly omitted to make more secular arrangements -- that Alain began to face the full degree of his ambivalence regarding the views of religion that he had dutifully accepted. Why are we presented with the curious choice between either committing to peculiar concepts about immaterial deities or letting go entirely of a host of consoling, subtle and effective rituals and practices for which there is no equivalent in secular society? Why do we bristle at the mention of the word "morality"? Flee from the idea that art should be uplifting, or have an ethical purpose? Why don't we build temples? What mechanisms do we have for expressing gratitude? The challenge that de Botton addresses in his book: how to separate ideas and practices from the religious institutions that have laid claim to them. In Religion for Atheists is an argument to free our soul-related needs from the particular influence of religions, even if it is, paradoxically, the study of religion that will allow us to rediscover and rearticulate those needs.
Author: Dan Busby Publisher: Zondervan ISBN: 0310115876 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
The Zondervan 2019 Church and Nonprofit Tax and Financial Guide annual reference guide continues to be one of the few resources offering tax and financial advice to churches and nonprofit organizations. Issues of financial accountability, receiving and maintaining tax-exempt status, accounting for charitable gifts, and other crucial topics receive careful and full discussion. The 2019 edition also contains a thorough description of tax laws affecting churches and other nonprofit organizations, ensuring compliance with all regulations. The book includes expert advice on handling charitable gifts, sample policies and procedures, easy techniques for simplifying financial policies and procedures, insights on medical expense reimbursements, key steps in sound compensation planning, and examples of required IRS filings.
Author: James F. Morton Publisher: Good Press ISBN: Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 79
Book Description
In this work, James F. Morton, an anarchist writer and political activist of the 1900s, advocated for taxing churches. He stated that the taxation of church property was demanded by every consideration of sound public policy, common sense, democracy, and justice.
Author: Edward A. Zelinsky
Author: 
Author: Dean M. Kelley
Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Author: Richard R. Hammar
Author: Son Lupardus
Author: Alain De Botton
Author: Dan Busby
Author: Christianity Today
Author: James F. Morton