Originally Posted by
RudyRuetigger
At the end of FY 2015 the gross US federal government debt is estimated to be $18.628 trillion, according to the FY16 Federal Budget.
Lastly, it costs average people a lot of money. Just think of it this way, for every tax dollar a religious organization does not pay, you and I are paying for it. And many of those religious organizations are amongst the wealthiest organizations in the world; for example by 1971, the total of real and personal property owned by U.S. churches was around $110 billion. In New York City alone, the amount was $3 billion in 1989. A 1986 study showed religious income in that year roughly $100 billion, or about five times the income of the five largest corporations in the U.S.
ut how much exactly does the government lose? Ryan Cragun, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Tampa, and two students examined U.S. tax laws to estimate the total cost of tax exemptions for religious institutions on property, donations, business enterprises, capital gains and “parsonage allowances,” which permit clergy to deduct housing costs. According to them, the US government gives up perhaps as much as $71 billion a year. States bypass an estimated $26.2 billion per year by not requiring religious institutions to pay property taxes.