Religion: a (tax) free ride...

Why is it that secular businesses pay tax but churches don't? The sums of money involved are huge. Just talking about Australia, the combined wealth of churches and religious communities is estimated at over $1 billion. Cast your eyes further afield to the evangelical hyperbole in the USA and the worldwide empire of the Catholic church, and this would be a drop in the ocean. Yet in most countries not a dollar is given to the tax man.

If you ask a representative of any church, they'll tell you that they more than make up for the lack of taxes by charitable acts and volunteer work. In some cases, this may even be true. But there's no accountability to the rest of the tax paying public, where, in Australia, it's estimated that only 17% of the population regularly attends church. In effect, the churches are saying "trust us to do the best thing with our tax breaks as far as charity is concerned".

But what constitutes correct use of charitable funds? In its submission to the Australian Government on what constitutes a charity (http://www.taxboard.gov.au/content/charity_subs/Catholic_Church_in_Australia.pdf) the Catholic church argues that all of its parts should be tax exempt, as "All fulfil the requirements to be charities since all have as their objective the advancement of religion." (page 6)

Excuse me??? The purpose of a charity is to advance religion?? According to MSN Encarta, "organization providing charity: an organization that collects money and other voluntary contributions of help for people in need". Helping the poor is charity - religion has nothing to do with it.

Under their own (false) definition of charity, this gives the Catholic church carte blanche to use 100% of the money donated, raised, gained from business activities, gifts, legacies - any source possible - for whatever the church heirarchy wishes. Obviously, given their definition, their main focus is to advance their fairy tale instead of tangibly assisting those less fortunate.

In any case, the majority of Catholics throughout the world are not wealthy to begin with. This leads to the absurd situation of the poor providing funds to one of the wealthiest organisations on earth, for that organisation's expressly stated purpose of spreading ignorance throughout the world. Monty Python couldn't do a sketch this ridiculous!

I'm not just picking on the catholics - there's plenty of others out there. In contrast to most religions advocating austerity in earthly goods, the Pentecostals believe "God wants you to succeed in all aspects of life - including wealth." Don't forget though, they want 10% of that wealth back. What do they use it for? I'm willing to bet that the millions spent on huge new churches, pseudo-rock concerts and professional lighting and sound setups (in order to attract new, younger middle-class punters with good future tithing prospects) far outweighs any real charitable acts.

In my opinion charities should be FULLY accountable. If the churches want tax exemptions, they should prove comprehensive records that show that they spend at least the amount of business, payroll, and GST tax - that would otherwise be due - on charitable work for those in need. I'm not talking their dodgy definition of charity either - I mean money, products, goods or services directly delivered to poor people. If they can't, or refuse, then sorry mate - no tax exemption for you.

This doesn't even begin to address other problems with church-based businesses undercutting "real" businesses run by people who actually do pay tax. An example, sourced from the ABC's 7:30 report - http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2001/s421419.htm - the "Cornerstone Christian Community" runs a tax-exempt turf business - "Turf the Lot" in central NSW. Thanks to students labouring 25 hours a week for $15 (not $15 an hour, $15 a week) this "business" has grown by 80% in 5 years and now dominates the market. Real business such as Canturf in the same area obviously can't compete.

Churches make enough out of fleecing their gullible members. For a start, this income should be subject to tax. If they also want to start organisations that compete in the market place, they should be on the same level playing field as any other business - taxed and paying their staff award wages.