[giardini]

I think it would be better to tax non-profits just as we do profit-seeking corporations.

Let people get together and worship but there's no reason to allow the accumulation and skimming off of billions of dollars from the tax economy by churches or other "charitable" organizations. They use the infrastructure and members of society just as much as anyone.

[autarchprinceps]

If only. I heard this is a big thing in America, but here in Germany it is worse than that. It's not about them being tax free, but us being taxed for them, and on two levels. One the one hand normal taxes are somewhat used for church purposes, sometimes because of historic buildings, sometimes to support church owned schools, hospitals, etc, because the church is "too poor to pay for that", but there is even an outright religious tax that is completely forwarded to either the catholic or lutheranian church. You can deny being in a church, but the default assumption is, that you are of the regional majority religion. I had to deny being catholic twice and lutheranian once, to avoid paying an additional 9% income tax.