-A Tax ‘By Any Other Name’ On Churches?

TAX  FEE

The city of Magnolia, Texas is Charging Churches and non-profits an exclusive extra ‘fee’ for water. In reality it is a tax ‘by any other name.’ From First Liberty Org:

Recently, Magnolia’s Mayor and City Council voted to revise the city’s fee schedule for water services and created an expensive “institutional” fee charged only to churches, schools and other nonprofit organizations.

In essence, these local officials have called this a “fee” to disguise that it is indeed a tax on otherwise tax-exempt groups. …

Read the whole article>

Response: Taxes on churches are illegal in Texas and these exclusive ‘fees’ should be also since they are in reality a tax by another name. Three churches are suing the city so we will be watching for the outcome.

Cities all across America are trying to figure out ways to tax churches and non-profits. One of the more common ways that many cities have ‘taxed’ churches is through fees connected to zoning approval. One large church in La Habra CA is paying the city $20,000/month for the zoning change that allowed them to build on a commercial property.

I believe that these kind of ‘fees’ will become more common in the future unless there are some major lawsuit rulings that favor churches. Recently I have read a number of articles pushing for conservative churches, that do not support the national ‘law of the land’ on same-sex marriage and transgender laws, to be penalized by losing their tax exemption status.

The reasoning is that ‘lawless’ hating churches that do not abide by the laws of the land should no longer be allowed to be tax exempt. The recent ‘Equality Act’ passed by Congress or something like it could be the basis for that kind of legal rationale if it were to become law in the future.               *Top