[FireSpawn]

excellent! I don't get why no one has thought of this before, it's so simple!

I'm pretty sure it has, it always falls through for some reason though.

Religious organisations being tax exempt has always struck me as ridiculous, but I don't think it'd bring in as much as you think it would.

Would like to point out the Pope's solid gold throne and wizard stick.

[NeoKnight]

We're talking about the national debt here. Seriously. Even if the Pope auctioned off the Vatican and everything in it, the funds gained would be like a drop in the bucket of our astronomical debt.

[karajorma]

Still, it wouldn't hurt to tax them.

AFAIK most religions are funded by donations from their respective followers, and I have yet to see a business run entirely on donations. I do see how a business model could be applied to a church though, in the respect that money is given for services rendered (literally). To be honest I have mixed opinions about the policy of religious taxation, but my gut reaction is to side against it. I'll have to think about it some more though.

The only reason you don't see businesses run that way is cause no one is going to give Coca Cola money and then not get a Coke. But it is worth pointing out that many religions make massive amounts of money by investing the donations they get.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_and_finances_of_the_Church_of_England

Meanwhile, the Church moved the majority of its income-generating assets (which in the past included a great deal of land, but today mostly take the form of financial stocks and bonds) out of the hands of individual clergy and bishops to the care of a body called the Church Commissioners, which uses these funds to pay a range of non-parish expenses, including clergy pensions and the expenses of cathedrals and bishops' houses. These funds amount to around £3.9 billion and generate income of around £164 million each year (as of 2003), around a fifth of the Church's overall income.

Now you do have to wonder why income generated from stocks and bonds is taxed for private individuals or businesses but not for someone doing that.

[Polpolion]

I do think religious institutions shouldn't be tax-exempt, but I'm just going to assume that the debt relief idea was posed facetiously because it's so absurd.

[Mars]

Not really. It's a significant industry, I would guess in the billions. It wouldn't fill in the national debt, no, but it would help.

[Polpolion]

Not really. It's a significant industry, I would guess in the billions. It wouldn't fill in the national debt, no, but it would help.

Yes, it would help in the same way that finding a nickel on the ground helps one buy a nice TV.

edit: well no, it's not even close to being like that but you know what I mean

[Mars]

More than that I think; IDK about elsewhere in the states, but even Colorado, with a relatively high atheist population is home to many, many mega-churches. I can't seem to find a viable statistic about how much religion pulls in, in the United States - I would suppose because it's not really tracked.

It would be like not taxing something like can manufacturing. Yes, taxing churches by itself doesn't solve it; completely dismantling the military won't solve it. Anything that will solve it will involve changing many things.

[Polpolion]

I dunno, Bob claimed to have `solved' the debt and when I skimmed his wall 'o text I only saw things about taxing religious institutions.

[StarSlayer]

Switch the entire nation over into a PMC

[Bobboau]

I dunno, Bob claimed to have `solved' the debt and when I skimmed his wall 'o text I only saw things about taxing religious institutions.

yes, you tax the everliving hell out of them so the only way they could possibly survive is through divine intervention, when that happens you tax them even more,keep this cycle going until god is singlehandedly paying you so much money that it pays off the national debt.

[NeoKnight]

I dunno, Bob claimed to have `solved' the debt and when I skimmed his wall 'o text I only saw things about taxing religious institutions.

yes, you tax the everliving hell out of them so the only way they could possibly survive is through divine intervention, when that happens you tax them even more,keep this cycle going until god is singlehandedly paying you so much money that it pays off the national debt.

Yes, well, I tried my best to explain earlier why this wouldn't really work...but at this point I'm half convinced you're just being facetious. 

[WeatherOp]

I actually could see a use in this. I wouldn't mind seeing the big churches go out and maybe just maybe We'd see Christians become more godly.

Ofcourse, wouldn't a good number of low income churches pull out a return?

[Bobboau]

you're just being facetious.

bah, unpossible! :|

[NeoKnight]

lulz...point taken, my good sir. I sometimes come to expect too much from HLP, but then I have to remember Poe's Law.

[Bobboau]

you would not believe how long I have waited for an appropriate situation to use that image in.

[NeoKnight]

Well, as the Christian religion teaches us, there's a time for everything. 

[watsisname]

A+ thread, thanks Bob!

[qazwsx]

A+ thread, thanks Bob!

AAAAAAAAA+++++ troll, would read again.

[FireSpawn]

Masterful use of trollskillz.
+10000 Trollpoints

[Turambar]

Oh, I actually support the bleeding dry of religious institutions.  Let them live like their prophets.