Nathan Jr
JF-Expert Member
- Sep 14, 2017
- 1,437
- 1,875
Hello habari wenzangu, we have to discuss on this topic concerned with tax exemption to churches
Not all churches or all ministers are rich, but some of them are very rich indeed. And that's no surprise, because society subsidizes them through a constellation of generous tax breaks that aren't available to any other institution, even non-profits. For example, religious organizations can opt out social security and medicate withholding. Religious employers are exempted from employment taxes, and in some states, from sales tax. Religious ministers - and no other profession; the law specifies that only "ministers of the gospel" are eligible for this benefit - can receive part of their salary as a "housing allowance" on which they pay no taxes.
Religious ministers - and no other profession; the law specifies that only "ministers of the gospel" are eligible for this benefit - can receive part of their salary as a "housing allowance" on which they pay no taxes. (Compounding the absurdity, they can then turn around and double-dip, deducting their mortgage interest from their taxes, even when their mortgage is being paid with tax-free money in the first place.) all exempted from tax
We're all paying for the special privileges afforded to religion. Your taxes and mine have to be higher to make up the revenue shortfall that the government isn't taking in because these huge, wealthy churches don't pay their own way. By some estimates,
Mr Magufuli i tell you Tanzania is loosing property tax almost 500 TZS millions per year due to this policy, loosing income tax to churche's employees almost 1200 TZS millions per years, Tanzania is loosing 2 billion per year due to import duty exemption to churches,Total 2.6 Billions,
Combined with a near-total lack of government scrutiny, the privileges granted to religion have enabled megachurch ministers to live fantastically luxurious lifestyles, na madege wananunua while other worshipers are poor,
An investigation by Sen. Chuck Grassley in 2009 gave a rare public glimpse of how powerful preachers spend the cash they rake in from their flocks: jewelry, luxury clothing, cosmetic surgery, offshore bank accounts, multimillion-dollar lakefront mansions, a fleet of private jets, this is also in Tanzania, preachers hire private jets from one region to another without crucial reason.
Most of these Elmer Gantry-types preach a theology called the "prosperity gospel". The basic idea of this is that God wants to shower you with riches, but only if you first "plant a seed of faith" by giving your church as much money as you possibly can, trusting that God will repay you tenfold. every morning in praise power, mlima wa moto and other stations attract people to join,(The typical ask is for 10% of your annual income - gross, not net; people who tithe based on their net income hate the baby Jesus.) Naturally, this idea has made some churches very, very rich, while making a large number of poor, desperate people even poorer.
One might think this scam would only work for so long before people start to realize that giving all their money away isn't making them rich. But the pastors who preach it have a very convenient and clever rationalization: when supernatural wealth fails to materialize, they tell their followers that it must be their own fault, that they're harboring some secret sin that's preventing God from fulfilling his promises.
But beyond the prosperity gospel, we're now witnessing a new and even more brazen idea spreading among the Tanzanians religious right: that the poor should accept their lot without complaint, and that calling for a stronger social safety net or advocating higher taxes on the rich is committing the sin of envy. For example, there's in Mwanza last week a certain preacher came out with an idea of how to get more people in her church, she decided to chaet people on how she always communicate to a dead person {steven kanumba} and then in order to prove you must attend mass and give offering, she also hired a jet to board kanumba's mother to the church. you know what happened
I don't see any reason of being exempted from tax, while they are getting a lot.
Other benefit they import products from abroad pretending that belongs to church while is for business, example in Kagera ELCT, most of pastors import items through address of churches
If you want to be reach start a church.
BEFORE FINILIZING PASS IN THESE BIBLE QUATATION
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
...Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
—Matthew 19:16-24
IS THAT above applicable to Tanzania pastors? is just a question
In another verse, Jesus tells his followers not to save money or store up possessions, but to travel constantly with no thought for the future, having faith that God will somehow feed and clothe them each day:
"And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind... But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you."
—Luke 12:22-31
The Bible goes so far as to say that the first community of Christians weren't just socialists, but communists
"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."
—Acts 2:44-45
By some accounts, this verse is what inspired Karl Marx's dictum, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Irony of ironies: Communism began in the pages of the Bible!
Of course, these commands are nearly impossible to follow, and that's precisely the point. In the beginning, Christianity was a small, radical sect whose followers expected the world to end within their own lifetimes. It's no wonder that they saw no use for earthly possessions. But when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire and began to convert the powerful and the comfortable, this would no longer do. No large, organized religion could possibly thrive on precepts like this, and so they were left by the wayside in the pursuit of worldly riches and imperial grandeur.
Please make sure when you discuss , discus it in neutral gorund dont be biased or abuse others' relogions
if you won't mind call me Nathan
Not all churches or all ministers are rich, but some of them are very rich indeed. And that's no surprise, because society subsidizes them through a constellation of generous tax breaks that aren't available to any other institution, even non-profits. For example, religious organizations can opt out social security and medicate withholding. Religious employers are exempted from employment taxes, and in some states, from sales tax. Religious ministers - and no other profession; the law specifies that only "ministers of the gospel" are eligible for this benefit - can receive part of their salary as a "housing allowance" on which they pay no taxes.
Religious ministers - and no other profession; the law specifies that only "ministers of the gospel" are eligible for this benefit - can receive part of their salary as a "housing allowance" on which they pay no taxes. (Compounding the absurdity, they can then turn around and double-dip, deducting their mortgage interest from their taxes, even when their mortgage is being paid with tax-free money in the first place.) all exempted from tax
We're all paying for the special privileges afforded to religion. Your taxes and mine have to be higher to make up the revenue shortfall that the government isn't taking in because these huge, wealthy churches don't pay their own way. By some estimates,
Mr Magufuli i tell you Tanzania is loosing property tax almost 500 TZS millions per year due to this policy, loosing income tax to churche's employees almost 1200 TZS millions per years, Tanzania is loosing 2 billion per year due to import duty exemption to churches,Total 2.6 Billions,
Combined with a near-total lack of government scrutiny, the privileges granted to religion have enabled megachurch ministers to live fantastically luxurious lifestyles, na madege wananunua while other worshipers are poor,
An investigation by Sen. Chuck Grassley in 2009 gave a rare public glimpse of how powerful preachers spend the cash they rake in from their flocks: jewelry, luxury clothing, cosmetic surgery, offshore bank accounts, multimillion-dollar lakefront mansions, a fleet of private jets, this is also in Tanzania, preachers hire private jets from one region to another without crucial reason.
Most of these Elmer Gantry-types preach a theology called the "prosperity gospel". The basic idea of this is that God wants to shower you with riches, but only if you first "plant a seed of faith" by giving your church as much money as you possibly can, trusting that God will repay you tenfold. every morning in praise power, mlima wa moto and other stations attract people to join,(The typical ask is for 10% of your annual income - gross, not net; people who tithe based on their net income hate the baby Jesus.) Naturally, this idea has made some churches very, very rich, while making a large number of poor, desperate people even poorer.
One might think this scam would only work for so long before people start to realize that giving all their money away isn't making them rich. But the pastors who preach it have a very convenient and clever rationalization: when supernatural wealth fails to materialize, they tell their followers that it must be their own fault, that they're harboring some secret sin that's preventing God from fulfilling his promises.
But beyond the prosperity gospel, we're now witnessing a new and even more brazen idea spreading among the Tanzanians religious right: that the poor should accept their lot without complaint, and that calling for a stronger social safety net or advocating higher taxes on the rich is committing the sin of envy. For example, there's in Mwanza last week a certain preacher came out with an idea of how to get more people in her church, she decided to chaet people on how she always communicate to a dead person {steven kanumba} and then in order to prove you must attend mass and give offering, she also hired a jet to board kanumba's mother to the church. you know what happened
I don't see any reason of being exempted from tax, while they are getting a lot.
Other benefit they import products from abroad pretending that belongs to church while is for business, example in Kagera ELCT, most of pastors import items through address of churches
If you want to be reach start a church.
BEFORE FINILIZING PASS IN THESE BIBLE QUATATION
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
...Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
—Matthew 19:16-24
IS THAT above applicable to Tanzania pastors? is just a question
In another verse, Jesus tells his followers not to save money or store up possessions, but to travel constantly with no thought for the future, having faith that God will somehow feed and clothe them each day:
"And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind... But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you."
—Luke 12:22-31
The Bible goes so far as to say that the first community of Christians weren't just socialists, but communists
"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."
—Acts 2:44-45
By some accounts, this verse is what inspired Karl Marx's dictum, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Irony of ironies: Communism began in the pages of the Bible!
Of course, these commands are nearly impossible to follow, and that's precisely the point. In the beginning, Christianity was a small, radical sect whose followers expected the world to end within their own lifetimes. It's no wonder that they saw no use for earthly possessions. But when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire and began to convert the powerful and the comfortable, this would no longer do. No large, organized religion could possibly thrive on precepts like this, and so they were left by the wayside in the pursuit of worldly riches and imperial grandeur.
Please make sure when you discuss , discus it in neutral gorund dont be biased or abuse others' relogions
if you won't mind call me Nathan
