Hive Learners

Should Faith Come With Tax Benefits?

I have seen people debate "should places of worship be taxed?". Some believe that they should as many places of worship receive lots of donations. However others believe that places related to religion should not be taxed. I see both sides of this and have some thoughts.

Firstly I am not a religious person. I actively don’t practise any religions however I have no bad attitude towards religion itself. Everyone has their own beliefs and I respect that. I don’t believe that you need to be religious to have an opinion on this as tax applies to everyone.

Everyone knows that regular people pay tax on many different things. Often when you purchase something in a shop you pay some tax. When I hear that some religious places receive huge amounts of money and do not pay any tax I wonder why.

I don’t think that all places of worship should be treated the same. Some may receive lots of donations but others do not even receive enough to cover their costs. So taking tax from them would not make sense.

I also think about how the donations are used. Many people give donations to help others or their religious group. Some use the money to help feed the poor and help struggling families. But often those in charge of the donations will take some of the money secretly.Whilst not everyone does this, it does happen. People give donations with good intentions and it is very wrong for someone to take advantage.

I therefore think there should be some proper checks in place to ensure that if an institution receives a large amount of donations, people know how their money is being spent. This does not mean that I am being disrespectful to religion.

So if they are making money from businesses or properties then there is no reason why they shouldn’t pay tax on it. If a regular business owner makes money they have to pay tax. Why shouldn’t a religious institution?

I also wonder how it would affect those visiting the places of worship. Some institutions may ask for more donations to cover their costs. This would not be fair to those visiting specially those on a low income. You should not have to pay more to pray.

And we also need to consider if the government would actually use the money correctly. Whilst it sounds like a good idea to get more money, it doesn’t necessarily mean that hospitals, schools or roads will improve. How the money is spent is important.

Personally I would not support taxing regular donations to help with religious activities or charity. But I would support taxing money made from commercial activities. Those taking advantage of donations should be accountable.

I know people have strong opinions about religion and I don’t want to offend anyone. And I’m just looking at this from a fair point of view. Religion should not be an excuse to not pay, however I don’t think people should pay more to practise their beliefs.

The thumbnail is created with chatgpt.

Thanks for reading 🌷

Comments · 6

@tahastories1(72)· 2d
You used a very relevantterm commercialization of faith' or the commercialization of religious places should not happen. I fully agree with this. it shouldn't be the case, as the government already generates substantial revenue from various other sources.
@roswelborges(74)· 2d
@goldenproject(72)· 2d
Yupyup i agree there should be a clear difference btwn donation meant for religious places and charity and profits from commercial activities. And also transparency and accountability should apply to everyone irrespective of our religion stands.
@indiaunited(71)· 2d
This post has been manually curated by @bhattg from Indiaunited community. Join us on our Discord Server.

Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share more than 100 % of the curation rewards with the delegators in the form of IUC tokens.

Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.

_{100% of the rewards from this comment goes to the curator for their manual curation efforts. Please encourage the curator @bhattg by upvoting this comment and support the community by voting the posts made by @indiaunited.}
@jza(69)· 3d
I think taxes are theft, so I would not encourage anyone to pay taxes. Taxes are only used to make politicians rich and the less taxes the best. I don't buy the narrative that taxes go to build streets and stuff. Simply because I think we are being scammed and upsold. Just like any other vendor that try to overcharge you for something, you will reject it every single time.

What we need is more companies offering more services and competing on a price war.

I would encourage people to use religion to build tax loopholes however. I am all for that. If you need to invent a religion and preach from your basement, so be it.
@kc6729(72)· 3d
They should pay tax is a way of helping the society