no one should pay tax, it is looting made tolerable by time.

but everyone should support the activities of society, in proportion as they gain some value from society. it's easy to do nowadays, just clip off x% of every transaction and divert it to the treasury. your bank's computer does similar things every minute. cash transactions? eliminate cash, it's already on the way out.

unfair to the poor, to make them pay for what they get? no, it treats them as equals. if the 5% (or however much) 'duty' bothers you , give the poor a 'citizens wage', a bribe to keep them from mugging or dealing drugs.

and best of all, no special mate's rates for anyone.

Ok Demos. 'Taxing' and 'Clipping' are two different things?.

Good luck with your tax free, service free, road free, dark ages...

Excerpt from Crikey.Com

"...Firstly, it’s important to understand that any religion that satisfies the criteria established by the High Court in its 1983 definition of religion in the Scientology case, is eligible for tax-exempt status. Briefly, these are a belief in a supernatural being, thing or principle and canons of conduct that give effect to that belief.

An organisation must have a building, be paying a stipend to a minister or similar, have a congregation, perform rituals and be open to the public. Secondly, all religions are legally charities. To "advance religion" is a tax-exempt charitable activity....

...There are about 1,500 religious organisations that are coded into the ABS’s data base. Their numbers seems to be increasing while at the same time Christian belief in Australia has declined steadily at every census.

The justification for religious organisations running tax-exempt commercial businesses is that the money goes back to the community through charitable spending, so what’s the problem? THE PROGRAM DID NOT CONSIDER THE IDEA THAT MAYBE THERE ARE RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS THAT TITHE THEIR MEMBERS TO CREATE A BASE OF CAPITAL, START TAX-EXEMPT BUSINESSES, DO A COSMETIC AMOUNT OF CHARITABLE WORK OR NONE AT ALL, AND DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY MANAGE TO LIVE VERY WELL..."
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080822-Churches-tax-and-deniability.html

The use of capitals is mine, to emphasize the fact the many religious commercial activities do not contribute a single cent to charity or similar works, but in fact provide a very comfortable standard of living for a variety of Christian (predominately) and other religions, from Muslims through to Scientologists.

I have no doubt that OLO contributors like MJPB and Polly would defend tax exemption to the death. Perhaps they would understand the concern of the secular community better if they considered how much of their taxes go towards religions they simply don't like - Islam for example.

Churches that provide education, hospitals, homes for the mentally and physically disabled- whihc is mainly the Catholic, Anglican, Uniting and Baptist churches should always be provided with tax exemptions. The overwhelming good they provide, and also the allieviation upon tax dollars that governments would have to fork out if they were not in the public square, should be a no-brainer.

For those that sell Sanitarium, they should be taxed as that is a business. But if the 7th Day Adventists have hospitals and I beleive that the one at Wahroonga is one of theirs, then to the4 extent that Sanitarium Foods gives funds to that hospital then that component should be tax exempt. It all depends upon how they use their profits.
People who oppose tax exemptions are clearly hostile to religion and need to clear theri heads of hate before even answering this topic question or of being in politics generally.

'Oh puke. You'd have to be a one-eyed godbothering nutcase to think that constitutes a rational argument.'

Coming from such a dogmatic secularist as you CJ I consider it a compliment.

Do not-for-profit organisations have to pay tax? Do they have to specifically be charitable, or do are all NFPs tax-exempt?