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SARS and local municipalities it is now time to tax Churches.
There are billions to be made in the Christian religion business. Yep billions and the “afterlife insurance” scam is the best recession proof business to be involved in - from the staid traditional denominations to the prosperity cult Churches. Jesus is richer than anyone on earth. He walks on streets of gold and has more Jets, Mercs and mansions to hand out than all the billionaires put together.
Yet oddly Churches have traditionally been tax free entities in South Africa. This is probably because they were supposed to be non profit charity organisations and at the time of the relevant legislation the world we lived in was dominated by Christianity.
The South Africa of today is a secular state (thank goodness) and needs all the taxes it can get. Churches exploit the masses like no other can, promising eternal life in the arms of a loving saviour Jesus for the paltry sum of ten percent of gross earnings and more in offerings.
Just imagine if that money (billions) could go to SARS. We all would have less tax to pay and productivity would increase because millions of people would be earthly focused instead of heavenly focussed. We would have less crime because there would be no forgiveness for sin with paying the price of those sins yourself.
People would be much healthy instead of vegetating on Church pews for hours every week they would be enjoying the great outdoors.
It is ironic that the biggest mouths in society, that of the Christian Churches, have not earned that write to even have a voice, because not only do they not pay taxes, they are subsidised by the tax payers on top of that.
National and local government revenue would go up, and that money could be used to, say, house the homeless and feed the hungry. Yes we would have fewer church soup kitchens but if ANC South Africa truly cared about poverty they wouldn't rely on churches to run soup kitchens, now would they. There would be no poverty.
Preachers could get decent productive jobs instead of fleecing the gullible with obsolete faith based philosophy. So how about it government, if you want more taxes, tax the Churches.
