Pastors to Lose Tax Exemption

As I was preparing some of the articles that are posted here on BPU, I came across one of particular personal interest to me.

The Pulaski County tax Accessor in Arkansas has decided to remove the tax exempt status on nine ministers in his county.

I have included the article from the Arkansas publication, as well as the comments made by viewers and finally my own thoughts on the ramifications of removing the pastors tax exemption. Please add your own comments to this post. By the Way, when I attempted to post my comment which is at the end of this post on the Arkansas Online website, it was rejected by them, while all the neggative comments were allowed.

Pastor Rob Robinson

Article from Arkansas Online:

Nine Pulaski County ministers who were given property tax exemptions on the homes they own by Pulaski County Assessor Janet Troutman Ward will be getting tax bills in the mail shortly, Ward said today.

“I have made the decision to put the parsonages that are owned by the Pastor’s back on the tax rolls,” Ward wrote in an e-mail, hours after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote about the tax breaks enjoyed by a handful of area preachers.

The Following are the comments from readers:

Hurray for the Democrat-Gazette-good work!

Unless the property is “church-owned”, it is considered personal property that should not have been exempt from taxes. Ministers are allowed full tax deductions on their IRS forms through “housing allowance” which includes all taxes, insurance, mortgage/rent, utilities, furnishings, repairs, etc. Another great expose’ by the D-G for investigative intuition.

Well its about time!!! Tax the church’s too the highest profit business on our planet and it is tax free too??? That’s stupid!!

Great reporting! I applaud this investigative effort and the state auto coverage as well! A free and enterprising press keeps elected officials at least semi-honest—after they are caught. :)

BTW, I think Ms. Ward is the Pulaski County ASSESSOR, not the Treasurer, as the above story says, is she not?

Thanks ARK DEMO for uncovering this malfeasance. Why should ministers get a break especially if it is their personal residence and does not belong to the church?

Great Job! Now take the next step and tax any minister who preaches politics from the pulpit or church who participates in promoting a political agenda. If they want to try and push their bias views on the public, they should pay taxes in violation of the seperation of church and state. Enough is enough.

One thing I don’t get is why the IRS has a housing allowance for ministers at all. I don’t get one. Why should they?

Oh, and it’s clear why the assessor changed her tune.

ok, I looked it up. If the minister lives in a church owned home, they don’t have to claim the benefit as income. If they receive a housing allowance (which can include money for mortgage, utilities, etc), they also don’t have to claim that allowance as income. It does not mean that a minister can just deduct cost of home ownership. Still, a ridiculous benefit provided by the Feds.

Unless you’re in the fog of religious nonsense, the seperation of church & State demands that not only these freeloaders pay taxes but the churches should pay also! They make huge sumns of money which they use for political causes as well as other things. As long as they continue to run businesses such as rental property and generate income from the poor they should pay taxes on everything… income, property AND personal property.
Why should they be exempt from the tax burden? Churches and the parasites that use them have certainly done nothing (like a disabled Veteran has) to deserve any tax break. Yet Religions amass monies and property and pay nothing back. They are no more capable of saving a mythical soul (since their whole spiel is a lie anyway) than a sex addict is of chastity.
Even Gee-sus said; “render unto Caesar…” so let’s get these freeloaders rendering! Maybe all these Gov’t Program shortfalls could be filled by the money wasted in the collection plates every Sunday.
After all, if there was a god and it believed there was a need for churches, wouldn’t it support them?

The Following is my own personal comment on this article which was rejected by the Arkansas Online Publication:

I have been a Pastor and Bible Teacher for 35 years trying to faithfully teach people about the Love of God and His desire to express that love to people. My home is currently in foreclosure due to the downturn in the economy and the effect it has had on my little church. In order to not be a burden to the church and take away needed classroom space at the church building, I made an office for myself in my home.

I want the readers to know that not all pastors live in luxurious homes and live in a lavish lifestyle. 99 percent of all pastors are like myself who pastor churches less than 100 members and struggle just to survive financially.

We are pastors and Bible teachers not for the financial income, but because we love people and the Lord to whom we also love and wish to share His love with the world. If the government should suddenly take away our ability to be tax exempt it would make an already difficult task of making ends meet, almost impossible.

I would hope that the readers would realize that most pastors are living on far less than most Americans survive on, and live at or below the poverty level. If we lose our tax exempt status we will continue to love and minister God’s love to people even if we have no income from the ministry or we lose everything. I am about to be homeless and penniless but I will not stop sharing the Great Love of God no matter what it costs me.

Pastor Rob www.thewordmp3.com


This entry was posted on Thursday, October 7th, 2010 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Bible Prophecy Updates, Controversial Subjects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.