Tax Rant by Proxy

A coworker of mine sent me an article about how the IRS is telling a church that they can't pray for a Bush victory next Tuesday. In response to that, I emailed him back with this:

It’s totally a violation of the First Amendment.

I’m leaning toward the opinion that we shouldn’t have tax-exempt religious institutions in the first place. How about this: Anything a church brings in in the way of donations is income. They are taxed on it as is any business. Any money that is spent on the kinds of things that you can deduct for they get to deduct. Since churches probably spend a much larger percentage of their income on such things, their income tax will probably be rather small, if not zero.

This would also free up churches to do whatever you and I can do when it comes to politics.

Anyone have any thoughts on that? Please comment.

In response to my response, he sent me the following email. I've made some edits to remove the company's name and any other identifying information:

It’s easy enough to invent a religion for the sole purpose of making money and that is not fair to the rest of us. I’m not sure about taxation the way it exists anyways.

<TaxRant>

Do you realize that 60 years ago the average person paid 3% in taxes? Now it is about 30%, and getting worse. I mean c’mon, taxing me based on how much I make? Where is the incentive to succeed?

I have to say that during the [company charity drive], I was constantly being plagued by the fact that I give every single time I get paid or buy something I get taxed. Here’s what I mean:

1. I pay income taxes


2. I pay sales taxes (sometimes on used goods, like vehicles)


3. I pay gas taxes


4. I pay property taxes (yeah, I’ll never own my house or the property it sits on)


5. I pay social security


6. I pay taxes indirectly when I buy goods, since the company that manufactures them has to pay taxes and must absorb the cost.


7. I give to charity whenever I buy a lottery ticket


8. I pay taxes on alcohol every time my wife buys a drink


9. I pay (ok [the company] pays) higher medical bills so that people that aren’t insured get medical help and so that people can continue suing doctors without bounds. It is still part of my compensation at [the company], so it counts.


10. I pay electric taxes, phone taxes, natural gas taxes, water taxes, sewer taxes, garbage taxes


11. Car taxes


12. Hunting taxes


13. I also give cash to charity on top of all that


14. Blah, blah, blah, bend over.

I’m sure there is more. When will it end? I realize that several of these items are voluntary on my part and not all of the taxes collected go to charity (or what I consider charity), but I do know that a lot is collected and it isn’t a good thing. I bet you’d be surprised if you sat down and figured out how much per year you spend on taxes.

Now days I almost always vote no on any initiative that would result in tax hikes and I’ll continue to do so until I’m dead. If the government wants to act like a massive corporation then it needs to work smarter. Of course, I don’t ever see that happening since the government has no competition.

Sorry to change the subject, but once I started I couldn’t stop.
;-)

</TaxRant>

Amen.