Mr Gerrit H Schorel-Hlavka,
Any profit organisation run by paid staff is not a church but may be organised by the members of Church and fills in taxation forms the same as any charitable non church organisation. Members may patronise other members businesses but normal taxation apply.

A church is the members of a faith that meet to extol the character of that faith and encourage and support each other in their lives. Each one of them pay taxes on their income, and they neither supply services or goods as expense to others for payment. Churches do have incoroperations that are accountable to the governments as charity where services and support are given by professionals and these organisations fill in income and expenditure reports. Churches have organisations that minister to the poor, depressed, unemployed etc and are very sucessful in raising these peoples lives back into society as self sufficient members of society.

The introduction of this line shows the selfish and mean attitude of those that persue this line. Because you see someone giving clothes,moral encouragement and food to the poor you want to tax their charity. Grow up!

Philo,

"Most churches run at a loss and their expenses rely on the good will of people working for charity. Churches are no different to social Clubs except they have no membership fees or income from gamboling"

If what you said was true, the churches would not be affected by losing their tax exempt status as there would be little to no profit. They could even register as a charity or non profit organisation.

This might be true on the small scale, but the churches have managed to accumulate vast wealth and land, the income of which is tax free and which is used mostly to expand their influence.

"According to BRW, if religion were a corporation, it would be one of the biggest and fastest-growing in the country, accounting for more than $23 billion in revenue in 2005, employing hundreds of thousands of people."

http://blogs.theage.com.au/executive-style/managementline/2006/06/30/australiasbiggestgiversand.html

Shadow Minister,
Your meanness towards compassion is deplorable. If the love and good will of people were left to people like you and to secular governments the country would descend into third world conditions.

People like you have no compassion toward the poor, the disposessed and vunerable. Try doing work among these people for the love of them and try assisting the outcast for no pay and see what you can be taxed on. The church is not a building; it is merely a centre of operation where the church meet(church means assembly of people).

Philo wrote: Shadow Minister,
Your meanness towards compassion is deplorable. If the love and good will of people were left to people like you and to secular governments the country would descend into third world conditions.

Dear Philo,

The welfare state in the secular governments of Scandinavia has provided a high standard of living, a smaller gap between rich and poor and greater political freedom than any non-secular government has provided. The welfare state that recognised the duty of the state to provide medical care and a basic standard of living for all its citizens is a consequence of the secular state. In the United States at this time President Obama is trying to reform the health system to bring it into line with the more advanced welfare states. A large part of the opposition comes from fundamentalist Christian churches.

The Muslim theocracies such as Saudi Arabia have a very unequal distribution of wealth. The same existed in the Christian theocracies before the enlightenment which challenged Christian hegemony.

In Nigeria Christian churches are still murdering witches. Helen Ukpabio in the Liberty Gospel church has fueled witchcraft accusations and persecutions. Boko Haram, an Islamic sect, has beheaded police officers and civilian to push Sharia law. Nigeria is a third world state with immense riches. Its population will continue to live in misery until it is a secular state which can control the religious nuts.

Poor Philo. Try reading the Max Wallace book, 'The Purple Economy', to understand the scope and extent of the religious scam and tax break business.

Only about the size of Rudd's recent GFC giveaway, each year, is skimmed off to support church corruption, to say nothing of the buggery and rape that goes on, still denied at the highest levels in churches across the world. God's work, no doubt, since he moves in mysterious ways.

And try to get your head around the Pope owning casinos, not personally of course, but through his pal St. Peter and his bookeeping staff.

And try digging down a few levels into some local 'good works' people, where ever you are. A 'legitimate' church surrounded by Inc. bodies, and private non-profit companies, a little further out, for profit companies, all feeding off the tax dollars through, say, a workplacement firm, then an advertising form, a TV promo firm, and a host of tax dodgy 'caring' institutions that compel Xtian views on their long suffering charges.

There is not sufficient space here to detail the scope of the religious scams that abound in Australia, under the auspices of 'caring for the poor folk'.

Now, of course, genuine 'good works' can be done too. But these can be done without the involvement of any religion. The sort of use taxes could be put to, if only we all paid our share.

Our Church has just finished a Holiday programme run free of charge for 120 children in our local community. Should we close this programme and force families to send their children to state funded programmes and pay fees? My wife works in one of the state funded programmes in a nearby community where fees and wages are paid. So tell me where is the taxes the Church should pay come from?