New Law Requires Churches and Charities to Begin Paying Taxes

New Law Requires Churches and Charities to Begin Paying Taxes

Gerald Sinclair


Republicans have somehow managed to quietly impose a new tax on churches and other organizations that normally would not have to pay taxes. This could cost some tens of thousands of dollars within reason.
The recent tax code rewrite requires churches, hospitals, and places of the sort to begin paying 21 percent tax on some of the benefits offered to their employees. This being things considered fringe benefits like parking or so forth. Some are shocked by this and others are ‘glad’ it is finally happening.
Politico wrote as follows in regards:
Though many organizations are still unaware of the tax, more than 600 churches and other groups have already signed a petition demanding it be repealed.

“There’s going to be huge headaches,” said Galen Carey, vice president of government relations at the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group of evangelical Christian organizations. “The cost of compliance, especially for churches that have small staffs or maybe volunteer accountants and bookkeepers — we don’t need this kind of hassle.”
The Jewish Federations of North America is looking at a new $75,000 tax bill this year because of the change.

“A lot of people are just finding out about it and the more people find out about it, the more pressure there will be on Treasury and Congress to either delay implementation or consider changing this,” said Steven Woolf, senior tax policy counsel for the group.
At least one Republican lawmaker is now proposing to rescind the tax, though House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady — one of the architects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — is defending the provision.
It will simplify the code when it comes to how workers are compensated, Brady said through a spokesman.
The debate comes as Republicans celebrate the six-month milestone of the law’s enactment. They’ve emphasized the benefits of its big cuts in taxes on businesses and individuals.
But to help defray the budgetary cost of those changes, Republicans simultaneously pared tax breaks for workers’ fringe benefits, which is projected to raise around $40 billion over the next decade.
Things like this raise a lot of questions and will cause quite the headache in the long run but who knows, perhaps some good will come of it. The treasury is currently working on regulations that should spell out how the details of this kind of thing will look. With figures like Joel Osteen looking as if he profits a bit too much off of the ‘word of God’ I could see how some people would want more taxation or at least some taxation on churches but is this the way to go about it?
What do you think about all of this? Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?



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