Should Churches Be Tax-Exempt?

Toronto Star columnist Slinger makes the point yesterday that if the Catholic Church wants to play “hardball” with Paul Martin and deny him communion because of the legalization of gay marriage, Paul Martin could press for taxation on the Church.

This vengeful approach seems highly unlikely. But it does bring up a good point. If churches act like special-interest groups, why do they enjoy tax-free status?

Angry in the Great White North, the blog I love to hate these days, argues that taking away the tax-exempt status of churches will put them into lobbyist overdrive:

But in general, the Church leaves well enough alone. And she can do so because she is not taxed.

Imagine if she were subject to taxes. Suddenly the Church would no longer be concerned only with the most serious examples of the State failing to fulfill its role. Now the Church would become involved in matters of finance, in budget decisions, in the minutiae of how the GST was calculated on the gasoline excise tax — anything and everything.

People like Slinger think the Church is butting in now?! Take away the tax exempt status, and bishops will be a common site in the halls of Parliament Hill. Like any other constituency having its money taken by the taxman, the Church would move quickly and forcefully to protect her interests.

Of course, I had to respond:

I don’t want to be petty, but there’s something irritating about referring to religions as “she” or “her”. The Catholic Church is not a woman even though you may be in love with it. Just had to get that early morning irritability off my chest. ;)

This discussion over religious taxation reminds me of a trip I took to Detroit’s worst areas a few years ago, with some American friends. I noticed that there was an enormous number of churches that looked like little more than houses with some kind of religious symbolism tacked on. On some streets it seemed like every third or fourth house was a “church”.

I asked them why that was, and they told me that churches paid no property taxes. So it was a good tax avoidance strategy to start a “church” in your home.

Anyway, we all know that religions, including Catholics, like to meddle in the affairs of state. The fact they concentrate on certain issues more than others – abortion instead of traffic regulations, for example – has less to do with their tax-exempt status, and more to do with the issues that are important to them. They are like any other special interest group. The American NRA concentrates on guns, MADD concentrates on drunk driving, the Church concentrates on men who have sex.

In spite of this, we all know that the special status afforded to religions, including their remarkable tax breaks, isn’t likely to go away any time soon. Although why I, as a non-religious person, should have to bear higher taxes because of that strikes me as an unfair, and indeed, most un-conservative notion.

Equal treatment by the law. Sounds good to me!