As Religious Programs Expand, Disputes Rise Over Tax Breaks

[Bozita]

Here's what happens to home taxes when these religious fruits multiply.

This article is number 3 in a series of 4. Audio slide show and links to the first two at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/10/business/10religious.html?hp&ex=1160539200&en=498771bc7b8314bc&ei=5094&partner=homepage

October 10, 2006

In God’s Name

As Religious Programs Expand, Disputes Rise Over Tax Breaks
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES

The similarities between Holy Cross Village at Notre Dame, on the north side of South Bend, Ind., and Hermitage Estates, south of town, are almost disorienting. The two retirement communities have the same simple gabled ranch houses, with the same touches of brick and stone, clustered around a pond with the same fountain funneling spray into the air and ducks waddling down the grassy bank.

But the retired residents of Hermitage Estates pay an average of about $2,300 per unit in property taxes. The management of Holy Cross Village, the Brothers of Holy Cross, says that development should be exempt from property taxes, and it has taken that argument to court.

As the Brothers of Holy Cross, a Roman Catholic religious order, sees it, providing the elderly with the amenities of the village — a sense of security, social opportunities and various services to make independent living easier — is a charitable activity rooted in its pastoral mission to serve others.

Members of the St. Joseph County Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals, all but one of them lifelong Catholics, see it differently. To them, a charitable ministry does not consist of providing lovely retirement living to affluent people. The current residents of Holy Cross Village have an average net worth of $1 million. Those with deposits on the units under construction are even better off, averaging $1.6 million.

If Holy Cross Village is not taxed, members of the assessment board point out, a heavier burden will fall on the working families in the county that are struggling to pay the taxes on their small homes in careworn communities like the west side of South Bend.

more...

[lvx35]

1. Tax em all!!!

The extent to which a religious organization is tax exempt should be the extent to which they are actually charitable. Just minimize tax burden on truly charitable organizations, and the good churches will be covered, and BS like this will pay its dues.

[keopeli]

2. We have to pay taxes until we die.

The priests have taken a logical off-ramp from the biblical highway.

When religious leaders asked Jesus whether paying taxes to the Romans was tantamount to blasphemy by worshiping Caesar, he replied, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's."

He was very good at shutting up right-wingers.

The fact that the US does not tax religious institutions is not a right, but a GIFT. It is the most obvious affirmation of the seperation of church and state within our government. Jesus doesn't seem to have a problem with the government taxing churches.

The priests, who have taken a vow of poverty, otherwise known as joining the richest charitable organization in the world (the Roman Catholic Church), focus their attention on the needs of the elders at the exlusion of reality.

Elders need to receive essential services just as children do - even priests! Whereas taxes pay for public servies to which you are entitled, their need is apparent, and an honest priest would want to pay for them honestly. Jesus was able to figure this out. Too bad his followers aren't quite so bright.

[Lasher]

3. Net worth of $1M is not a lot of money if you're going to retire

Logically assuming the calculation includes the value of assets such as IRAs and pension annuities from former employers, this is actually a bare minimum of what a couple needs to retire.

[w4rma]

5. Are you honestly trying to defend this as some sort of "charity"?

rather than what it is: a tax haven for millionares.

[Lasher]

7. No, I'm not condoning the tax dodging scheme.

I'm just saying that $1M in total assets for a retired couple is not a lot of money.

[PurityOfEssence]

4. Believers are better than other people

They should be sustained by all of us and should never have to pay the tab for all the services society provides. Of course this falls heavily on those of us in the ten percent range who don't swallow these superstitions, but it's only fair: we should accept our inferiority.

There's a sickness in this society which is a normal human ugliness: the claim that personal superiority exempts one from common responsibility.

[w4rma]

6. I'm in favor of taxing buisnesses and churches exactly equally.

Tax them all and let God sort it out.

[NMMNG]

8. Moral of the story;

Start any business you want. Make millions and millions. So long as you say it has a religious purpose you can get off without paying a penny in taxes.

[Bozita]

9. link to part four of this series -- it's over in LBN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2556874