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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2015 9:11:27 GMT -6
One of the mega church preachers owns a cattle bussiness and also a airline business. I was reading where he just bought himself a new 20 million dollar jet but he says it's God ordained.
Should the mega preachers/churches be tax exempt? I am a Christian but I find some of these mega churches/preachers completely repugnant. Why shouldn't they pay taxes if they have that kind of money to throw around?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2015 13:18:03 GMT -6
Well, that would open a can of worms so to speak. If the Gov started to tax one church and not all it would create quite a controversy
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Post by samsara15 on Jan 5, 2015 17:54:19 GMT -6
Preachers aren't now, and shouldn't be, tax exempt, but I agree with skylar that the church itself is opening a can of worms. Let it be, IMO. The govt can stand to lose a few tens of millions here and there. We can't/shouldn't get the government into penalizing people just because they are repugnant
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2015 19:46:06 GMT -6
Preachers aren't now, and shouldn't be, tax exempt, but I agree with skylar that the church itself is opening a can of worms. Let it be, IMO. The govt can stand to lose a few tens of millions here and there. We can't/shouldn't get the government into penalizing people just because they are repugnant I don't have in mind Joel Osteen but theres another fellow that has made a pretty fair living off preaching. He's a Billionaire. I would never do anything about these guys except stay away from them.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2015 11:36:08 GMT -6
If, as sam says, the minister/ministers or other employees, pay personal taxes and their taxes are in order, then what they do with their income is entirely up to them. They may be able to write off the expense or some of the expenses of a plane as related to church business, or the plane may be owned by the church instead of the 'preacher'
We have a church here with a membership in the high thousands. They bought three city blocks of prime business site real estate just for parking. Some of the city's hierarchy are members. I've visited there once or twice, no big deal to me. This is the US and people can operate a church according to their financial abilities. I will say one thing in their defense. They have the financial resources to do a lot of good for the community. They sponsor several inner city programs for underprivileged people/kids. They also operate several homeless shelters and homes for battered women and children.They have a scholarship program and a lot of kids have been able to attend college who , otherwise, would never have been able to go. The congregation has often paid for funerals for people who couldn't afford a decent burial.So I will give them credit for giving back to the community. Otherwise, what they do with their money, or what sort of salary their head minister makes is of little consequence to me. I, personally, prefer a smaller church where people know each other, but to each his/her own.
I've met the minister and some of the assistant ministers. I don't get that 'yuk' feeling from any of them, you know like a snake oil salesman. They all make themselves available to the city at large 24/7 whenever anyone is in need. That is a huge responsibility, so I say " More power to them "
If people in our Government, Congressman etc, can write off expensive vacations, country homes, planes, on the taxpayers dime, I don't see much difference.. at least some mega churches give back to the community. Can we say that about our own government ?
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