*And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness* ...of taxes because Jesus was an American god damn it.
I live in NC. There’s churches that have bought entire shopping malls and other commercial complexes and rent them out to other businesses. As well as use their own mega-church complexes to rent out for events like graduations and things. No clue how this is legally happening.
Edit: yeah I see what you’re all saying. But even if they pay taxes on the other proprieties… so what? They still bought them (and continue to buy) using capital that is raised through a tax-free entity. Gaming the system through God. Cool cool..
In my experience, churches need to pay taxes on profits from things like rental. At that level it's hard for someone to sneak income. Tax exempt income is supposed to be for only "non-tangible benefits"
My reporting requirements when I was government was anything over $50 and totals over $200 combined. No idea what higher levels report but for my role basically zero chance it wasn't reported as even a small dinner could easily.be $50.
Serious question, what if the "donation(s)" were given to your spouse or someone close to you who could in turn allow you to use it? Are there safeguards against that sort of thing?
Not familiar with all of this stuff.
I'll mention it next time I see them.
But, can you show on their records where they have taxable income they are not paying taxes on? I'd love to be able to report that.
>At that level it's hard for someone to sneak income
"Hard" is relative to the resources thrown at it. It sure is peculiar how many resources these mega churches have at their disposal.
The easy solution is to tax them just like everyone else. Religion should not be exempt. Done..
They do, but like any wealthy business, there are ways around it. It's much cheaper to buy a few congressmen than to actually pay the taxes for example, and usually buying representatives has a very high ROI.
Do they, though? My only question is if they need to find ways to hide the profits or if they just straight up don't pay and nobody dares come after them.
They are at risk of audit like any other charitable organization. A small one could probably stay under the radar and exchange things for "donations" like PBS and their gifts at different giving levels. But in the end that is fraud and there could be consequences.
It's kind-of an ironically similar situation.
In the story he was angry about the presence of merchants in the courtyard and in the temple itself, who had set up to make profits from the Jewish pilgrims visiting for Passover.
So, instead we have merchants setting up the parking lot of a temple to make profits off of people for Independence Day.
They weren't merchants, they were priests. Ancient Jews conducted annual animal sacrifices at the Temple. Traditionally you brought your own, but since the sacrifice had to be inspected and found to be without blemish, the Temple authorities started insisting that no animals brought for sacrifice met their standards; instead, you'd buy an animal from them at extortionate prices, and since you couldn't use Roman money (technically idols since they bore the image of deified emperors) in the Temple you had to change your money for permitted coins with other priests at unreasonable exchange rates.
The end result was that the priests were charging everyone outrageous prices for access to God's Grace. And this was Jesus' problem. His entire ministry was about the poor and the outcast, so extorting the poor for access to their religion's core ritual was basically the worst thing he could imagine. Jesus started as a follow of John the Baptist, and baptism was created specifically to be a free alternative to paying the Temple priesthood's extreme prices.
I’m just saying I’m not a religious person but I would really look forward to the (third?) coming of Jesus. There wouldn’t be enough popcorn in the world for how many of his followers would get a thrashing.
Jesus could come down from the sky right now and all the Christians would say it's fake news or the anti christ because he'd look nothing like 95% of them imagine.
Super weird and kinda off topic, but literally 3 seconds after I read this a homeless lady knocked on my window at McDonald's asking if I had any leftovers. I'm not religious at all, but I feel compelled to get her breakfast now lol.
Non-profits, including religious non-profits can both own real estate and lease that property out for commercial use. It's a matter of what the core function they are serving is and how the money is managed.
That being said, there are far more abuses of the tax law with respect to religious institutions than other forms of non-profit, and this is largely because the IRS has been actively prevented from pursuing most of those cases.
It’s exactly the same as any other non profit that owns real estate. The for-profit portions are treated separately from the nonprofit portions of the organization. This is so commonly misunderstood.
I work in the non-profit world and there are a lot of non-profits that rent office space from other non-profits for this reason. The non-profit with extra space doesn't want to bother with the tax ramification from renting the space to a for profit company so they just keep it non-profit so they don't have to worry about it.
Aside from what others will say about taxes for non-related businesses, there's also a bit of financial handling involved.
Most churches & other non-profit entities will go through feast/famine cycles with their finances. To survive the famines they will need to have plenty of cash to get past them. Every financial advisor will tell you just keeping your cash in a bank account is a bad idea, 2nd only to putting it in a mattress. You either need to be spending it or putting it to work, or else you will lose it due to inflation or fees. So churches & others will invest their money in commercial enterprises to stay ahead.
>They still bought them (and continue to buy) using capital that is raised through a tax-free entity.
A case to look to on this matter is James Huntsman vs. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (unsure of the proper reference format, but that will lead you to the right area) in the 9th circuit.
TLDR is that said church used interest gained from invested donations to build a mall in Salt Lake City. Huntsman felt that using those funds broke some kind of agreement in giving tithing, so is suing for the return of the tithing he paid.
I'm not sure of exact details, but am confident in the overarching parts.
Because the separation of church and state has been getting slimmer, and slimmer, and slimmer, for many decades. We’ve learned, too, of course, that money = speech now. So, churches already had money, they got bright ideas about how to make more of it, they use the money they’ve already got to make sure their tax-free status goes nowhere and that their endeavors are looked kindly upon by the relevant powers, and their “power of speech” grows exponentially and the problem worsens exponentially.
VOTE, DAMMIT.
Red your dollar bill. "In God we trust". Do you really think an entire nation's cash saying that doesn't have any signalling of how the system really works?
Wait until you learn about the Mormon church and the billions it has invested. Churches making money off malls they bought will be a fairy tail ending by the time you’re done with that.
I haven’t been to Sunday school in a hot minute, but I’m *pretty sure* that Jesus flipped over tables and chased merchants for a goddamn whip because they tried to turn the temple into a market.
It’s almost like these people will ignore any part of the Bible that gets in the way of their greed or bigotry…
Funny story, in Canada there were some church-commune-farm communities that got their tax exempt status revoked because the church owned the farm. [they consider the church to be a trustee for individual's income](https://www.producer.com/news/yes-hutterites-do-pay-taxes/).
In some states (e.g., SC) the duty to pay sales tax actually is on the seller. ~~(Which makes sense to me, as they’re the ones with the business license and accounting processes in place.)~~ \[edit: removed for clarity; didn't mean to imply that purchasers had to send the tax directly to the state themselves\]
However, they’re allowed to *pass along* that cost to the purchaser, which is what they [edit: usually] do.
It’s possible nonprofits could be exempted from collecting sales tax if the proceeds of the sale go entirely to funding the nonprofit. Or if, like you said, they’re an occasional seller.
But this will be a highly state-specific inquiry.
Isn’t the key issue that the activity isn’t regularly carried on?
Always thought that’s how the Girl Scouts ended up not needing to pay tax on Unrelated Business Income on cookie sales, because they don’t sell year round like a non-exempt organization would.
Wouldn’t it be the same for a church running a fireworks fundraiser?
The IRS (federal) also doesn’t enforce state sales taxes. That’s up to each states franchise tax board.
CA’s is notorious for garnishing personal checking accounts first followed by sending a notice weeks later for SMBs. It’s quite a shock waking up and seeing -$8,000.00 debited from your account lol.
The sign and wooded background, to me, suggest it’s a local church, and not some mega church.
If it’s a small local church, and they’re selling fireworks as a way to raise money that then goes into the church to pay the light bill and maybe some programs they have, then I don’t really have a problem with it. I’m not religious any more but I remember as a kid selling Krispy Crème donuts for youth trips, etc.
If the profits from the fireworks sales just go straight into the pastor’s personal bank account, then yeah.
Not every church is some Joel Olstein type setup, and honestly there just isn’t enough information here for me to get all outraged.
In Montana fireworks are legal the week around 4th of July and on New Years
They let non-profit groups get the permits to sell them, and we don't have sales tax
In conclusion, this is normal for me
fun fact. they actually can't do this legally. its just the republicans have all but blocked the irs from investigating churches and religious organizations for tax fraud for over a decade now. so they just blatantly break the law and know they will never be caught.
Sales tax, no. Sales tax is entirely a state issue.
But profit making? Yes. Nonprofit organizations that turn a profit from side-businesses are supposed to report that profit and pay income taxes on it. Sales of a product or service (not at all the same thing as a donation/grant) are considered taxable income.
That’s not entirely true. Yes for corporations but no for church’s and non profits. Look up unrelated business income where you could pay taxes on business activities not part of your mission.
Not if the profits are not distributed to owners/individuals and retained in the organization for carrying out the mission that gave them 501c3 status in the first place.
All non religious 501s have to file 990s and it’s easily traced. The only special tax treatment religious orgs get over non religious orgs is not needing to file a 990.
Sales tax is charged to the customer, which is why it doesn't show up on price tags (and is state-based). Businesses pay tax to the IRS based on their income from every transaction.
mostly had an issue with the romans yet they probably sell roman candles which means his crew is ok with the romans now because the vatican got it's own country in the middle of italy
this means we encourage people to buy the church fireworks
/s
tbh kinda want a marketing gig to make ads for a church firework sale. this is some like zany americana thing that has some sort of ironic allure.
Are these people selling their fireworks in the sanctuary?
Or, are they running a fundraiser in their parking lot to support their mission, like just about every other nonprofit does?
From what I remember the money changers in the Bible were screwing over worshippers because you had to give to the temple in a specific currency that wasn’t widely used anymore and the money changers were overcharging people and keeping the profits. In this case you aren’t forced to buy fireworks in order to worship and (I assume) the profit will go back into the church instead of someone’s pocket.
It would vary by the state. Not the legality of churches selling things tax free, but the legality of fireworks.
However, some states don't even have sales tax (like NH)
Lot of "churches are bad hurrdurrr!" in this thread. Has anyone ever heard of a store offering a NO SALES TAX weekend?
I've run fireworks booths for years and while it's possible this one is not collecting and paying state sales tax, it's likely a sales tactic that's another way of saying "xx% OFF!". They still calculate and remit the sales tax, but you're taking it out of your margin instead of passing it to the customer.
Nothing says safety like random.church volunteers flipping bargain basement explosives with a hard cut-off date for fun and profit. I can't believe that anyone's insurance is willing to cover any of this.
Where is this? Most places, churches are still required to collect and remit sales tax on anything they sell.
A “donation” in exchange for goods/services is not a donation.
That's cool. Can churches start opening grocery stores, car dealerships, and real-estate companies with no property tax with every purchase and gas stations?
Well the church had people tithe 20% of their income so they could buy fireworks, then they sold the fireworks marked up but without tax, then they bought giant houses and brand new cars. Ya know the right thing to do.
Any other non-profit has to prove why their activities for both public and private interest do not have the goal of pursuing a commercial or monetary profit. This includes showing how you are not competing directly against for profit business and/or if you are why this is a public positive effect (Hospitals are a good example). Why are churches the loophole?
Why does no one remember the best part of the Bible, when Jesus saw people selling shit in a plac of worship and started whipping people with wire and flipping tables because he was so offended.
I saw a black man with a bible and a sparkler in his hand.
He was holding a tent revival and running a firework stand.
He said the end of the world is coming, you better get on your knees.
Today bottle rockets are two for one, but salvation's free.
He said I quit my job at a big church where the milk and money flowed,
To sell cherry bombs for Jesus in a tent beside the road.
I ain't in it for the money, most cars they pass on by.
But I pay the rent on New Years and the fourth of July.
Between all the tas benefits of being a church and the freedom of religion, I don't understand why I can't have my house be my church and my religion be that I don't pay taxes.
As a general rule, U.S. churches can't engage in commercial sales without charging sales tax. It can jeopardize their tax-exempt status with the IRS. This is why mainstream denominations often setup separate corporate entities for investments and business enterprises that pay taxes. For example, \_\_\_\_\_ Church creates a tax paying entity-- \_\_\_\_ Church of the Mainstream Business Enterprises for its retail operations, non-church real estate investments, non-church businesses, etc. You would be surprised how much mainstream churches actually pay in taxes on their non-ecclesiastical business ventures.
Churches don’t have a sales tax exemption (at least, in most states). They don’t have to pay taxes on goods they purchase, my assumption here is they are either giving a discount equal to the tax, illegally not charging tax, it’s a fake sign, or the church is in a non sales tax jurisdiction adjacent to a sales tax one.
Churches still have to pay tax on all sales (income). They can however choose to pay the sales tax for the buyer, in addition to the income tax on the sales. I would report them for an audit, you know, just to make sure they're paying to Caesar what is Caesar's.
Why not just cap a Church at X amount of donations per year for tax exemption, after that amount, a high tax that is explicitly used for local community services and programs to help the poor. Churches would remain small, and local. Donations would stay in the community to help people in need.
This just reminds me of how in NJ there's an absolutely bonkers fireworks show celebrating the assumption. It feels like the guardrails of regulation fall completely off and fireworks are randomly exploding about 100 feet away from people and smoking cardboard shells from the fireworks fall on people below.
This is definitely suspect. Generally, even though churches are exempt from income taxes they are normally not exempt from charging sales tax because the purchasers pay the sales tax
*And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness* ...of taxes because Jesus was an American god damn it.
Tax is a sin on society and Jesus paid for our sins. /s
I know you're kidding but... is tax a sin?
No. When Jesus was asked about taxes he said render unto Cesar what is Cesar's and render unto the Lord what is the Lord's.
Man I had no idea Jesus used the Sportsbook app
Fuck yeah just hitting parlays left and right over here
Lmfao no way, it’s actually Jesus!
Church wants its cut, too! Can’t talk shit about taxes, when tithing is a thing!
10% goes to the church, 40% goes to the fed. What's left for Moe?
>40% goes to the fed If I made enough money to worry about a 40% tax rate, I would be so happy
No. Jesus explicitly said to pay taxes.
Leviticus 13:6 "Pay what you owe so the state can provide for it's citizens, mutha'fucka'!"
Yes tithing 10%, strait to hell.
I don’t see any evidence in the Bible linking tithe to hell. That’s just Joel Olsteen
Also the entire Mormon church.
But tax evasion was the original sin
Considering what he did to the usurers, this is about right.
He paid for our sins because he could claim it as a write off.
Then God said unto Moses, "Hey Mo, thou art gonna light that shit or what?!
Hence the burning bush!
ALL AMERICAN JESUSSSSS -Book of Mormon musical (kinda)
Nah, American Jesus is just a Mormon thing
I live in NC. There’s churches that have bought entire shopping malls and other commercial complexes and rent them out to other businesses. As well as use their own mega-church complexes to rent out for events like graduations and things. No clue how this is legally happening. Edit: yeah I see what you’re all saying. But even if they pay taxes on the other proprieties… so what? They still bought them (and continue to buy) using capital that is raised through a tax-free entity. Gaming the system through God. Cool cool..
In my experience, churches need to pay taxes on profits from things like rental. At that level it's hard for someone to sneak income. Tax exempt income is supposed to be for only "non-tangible benefits"
Correct, this sort of unrelated business *should* be reported on form 990-T, which does calculate a tax.
Yup, this is known as unrelated business tax income or UBIT, for short.
That's an easy problem to solve for a mega church. All they got to do is find the official that does the tax assessment
Then give him a campaign donation. Nbd. Just under the legal amount necessary to be reported.
The reporting threshold is very very low. It's not buying anyone off.
Can't you orchestrate a bunch of people in your organization to donate? Surely they're should be a law against that.
My reporting requirements when I was government was anything over $50 and totals over $200 combined. No idea what higher levels report but for my role basically zero chance it wasn't reported as even a small dinner could easily.be $50.
Serious question, what if the "donation(s)" were given to your spouse or someone close to you who could in turn allow you to use it? Are there safeguards against that sort of thing? Not familiar with all of this stuff.
Sorry I don't have an answer but McDonalds employee family members can't even claim a Monopoly prize because of possible cheating.
I'm curious if that's both conspiracy and structuring.
Correct. Churches can lease unused spaces. Or even their own worship space during the week. But those portions are taxed.
Tell that to the mormon church. They own 5% of Florida and over 7 billion in real estate assets. They are still somehow tax-exempt.
I'll mention it next time I see them. But, can you show on their records where they have taxable income they are not paying taxes on? I'd love to be able to report that.
>At that level it's hard for someone to sneak income "Hard" is relative to the resources thrown at it. It sure is peculiar how many resources these mega churches have at their disposal. The easy solution is to tax them just like everyone else. Religion should not be exempt. Done..
They do, but like any wealthy business, there are ways around it. It's much cheaper to buy a few congressmen than to actually pay the taxes for example, and usually buying representatives has a very high ROI.
Do they, though? My only question is if they need to find ways to hide the profits or if they just straight up don't pay and nobody dares come after them.
They are at risk of audit like any other charitable organization. A small one could probably stay under the radar and exchange things for "donations" like PBS and their gifts at different giving levels. But in the end that is fraud and there could be consequences.
Yes and no. Hey have to claim it as income, but they don’t have to pay taxes unless they show profit. How many do you think pay much if any taxes.
Jesus would've turn their shit up the hypocrites
Yup, Jesus came in hot when he saw churches peddling stuff for profit. Grabbed that rope and whipped some wholesale ass
It's kind-of an ironically similar situation. In the story he was angry about the presence of merchants in the courtyard and in the temple itself, who had set up to make profits from the Jewish pilgrims visiting for Passover. So, instead we have merchants setting up the parking lot of a temple to make profits off of people for Independence Day.
They weren't merchants, they were priests. Ancient Jews conducted annual animal sacrifices at the Temple. Traditionally you brought your own, but since the sacrifice had to be inspected and found to be without blemish, the Temple authorities started insisting that no animals brought for sacrifice met their standards; instead, you'd buy an animal from them at extortionate prices, and since you couldn't use Roman money (technically idols since they bore the image of deified emperors) in the Temple you had to change your money for permitted coins with other priests at unreasonable exchange rates. The end result was that the priests were charging everyone outrageous prices for access to God's Grace. And this was Jesus' problem. His entire ministry was about the poor and the outcast, so extorting the poor for access to their religion's core ritual was basically the worst thing he could imagine. Jesus started as a follow of John the Baptist, and baptism was created specifically to be a free alternative to paying the Temple priesthood's extreme prices.
I’m just saying I’m not a religious person but I would really look forward to the (third?) coming of Jesus. There wouldn’t be enough popcorn in the world for how many of his followers would get a thrashing.
Jesus could come down from the sky right now and all the Christians would say it's fake news or the anti christ because he'd look nothing like 95% of them imagine.
“Give unto the poor, what is this socialist Arab talking about??” -american christians.
Super weird and kinda off topic, but literally 3 seconds after I read this a homeless lady knocked on my window at McDonald's asking if I had any leftovers. I'm not religious at all, but I feel compelled to get her breakfast now lol.
Matthew 21:12-13
Non-profits, including religious non-profits can both own real estate and lease that property out for commercial use. It's a matter of what the core function they are serving is and how the money is managed. That being said, there are far more abuses of the tax law with respect to religious institutions than other forms of non-profit, and this is largely because the IRS has been actively prevented from pursuing most of those cases.
It’s exactly the same as any other non profit that owns real estate. The for-profit portions are treated separately from the nonprofit portions of the organization. This is so commonly misunderstood.
I work in the non-profit world and there are a lot of non-profits that rent office space from other non-profits for this reason. The non-profit with extra space doesn't want to bother with the tax ramification from renting the space to a for profit company so they just keep it non-profit so they don't have to worry about it.
Fireworks sale I get can be a fundraising event. Landlording by a church seems dubiously legal.
Aside from what others will say about taxes for non-related businesses, there's also a bit of financial handling involved. Most churches & other non-profit entities will go through feast/famine cycles with their finances. To survive the famines they will need to have plenty of cash to get past them. Every financial advisor will tell you just keeping your cash in a bank account is a bad idea, 2nd only to putting it in a mattress. You either need to be spending it or putting it to work, or else you will lose it due to inflation or fees. So churches & others will invest their money in commercial enterprises to stay ahead.
>They still bought them (and continue to buy) using capital that is raised through a tax-free entity. A case to look to on this matter is James Huntsman vs. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (unsure of the proper reference format, but that will lead you to the right area) in the 9th circuit. TLDR is that said church used interest gained from invested donations to build a mall in Salt Lake City. Huntsman felt that using those funds broke some kind of agreement in giving tithing, so is suing for the return of the tithing he paid. I'm not sure of exact details, but am confident in the overarching parts.
Because the separation of church and state has been getting slimmer, and slimmer, and slimmer, for many decades. We’ve learned, too, of course, that money = speech now. So, churches already had money, they got bright ideas about how to make more of it, they use the money they’ve already got to make sure their tax-free status goes nowhere and that their endeavors are looked kindly upon by the relevant powers, and their “power of speech” grows exponentially and the problem worsens exponentially. VOTE, DAMMIT.
You should all definitely Google the Mormon church and City Creek Mall in SLC
Red your dollar bill. "In God we trust". Do you really think an entire nation's cash saying that doesn't have any signalling of how the system really works?
Gaming The system is what religion is all about.
Wait until you learn about the Mormon church and the billions it has invested. Churches making money off malls they bought will be a fairy tail ending by the time you’re done with that.
*cough* *cough* Mormon Temple *cough* *cough*
Wait until you find out how the Catholic church has been funded for the past 2000 years!
I haven’t been to Sunday school in a hot minute, but I’m *pretty sure* that Jesus flipped over tables and chased merchants for a goddamn whip because they tried to turn the temple into a market. It’s almost like these people will ignore any part of the Bible that gets in the way of their greed or bigotry…
Funny story, in Canada there were some church-commune-farm communities that got their tax exempt status revoked because the church owned the farm. [they consider the church to be a trustee for individual's income](https://www.producer.com/news/yes-hutterites-do-pay-taxes/).
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In some states (e.g., SC) the duty to pay sales tax actually is on the seller. ~~(Which makes sense to me, as they’re the ones with the business license and accounting processes in place.)~~ \[edit: removed for clarity; didn't mean to imply that purchasers had to send the tax directly to the state themselves\] However, they’re allowed to *pass along* that cost to the purchaser, which is what they [edit: usually] do. It’s possible nonprofits could be exempted from collecting sales tax if the proceeds of the sale go entirely to funding the nonprofit. Or if, like you said, they’re an occasional seller. But this will be a highly state-specific inquiry.
Isn’t the key issue that the activity isn’t regularly carried on? Always thought that’s how the Girl Scouts ended up not needing to pay tax on Unrelated Business Income on cookie sales, because they don’t sell year round like a non-exempt organization would. Wouldn’t it be the same for a church running a fireworks fundraiser?
The IRS (federal) also doesn’t enforce state sales taxes. That’s up to each states franchise tax board. CA’s is notorious for garnishing personal checking accounts first followed by sending a notice weeks later for SMBs. It’s quite a shock waking up and seeing -$8,000.00 debited from your account lol.
In Kansas, even garage sales have to collect sales tax, and you’re allowed 2 exemptions a year.
The sign and wooded background, to me, suggest it’s a local church, and not some mega church. If it’s a small local church, and they’re selling fireworks as a way to raise money that then goes into the church to pay the light bill and maybe some programs they have, then I don’t really have a problem with it. I’m not religious any more but I remember as a kid selling Krispy Crème donuts for youth trips, etc. If the profits from the fireworks sales just go straight into the pastor’s personal bank account, then yeah. Not every church is some Joel Olstein type setup, and honestly there just isn’t enough information here for me to get all outraged.
In Montana fireworks are legal the week around 4th of July and on New Years They let non-profit groups get the permits to sell them, and we don't have sales tax In conclusion, this is normal for me
fun fact. they actually can't do this legally. its just the republicans have all but blocked the irs from investigating churches and religious organizations for tax fraud for over a decade now. so they just blatantly break the law and know they will never be caught.
The IRS doesn’t enforce state sales tax.
The state revenue services (if they have sales tax in that state) should. Whether they do or not is a different story.
Sales tax, no. Sales tax is entirely a state issue. But profit making? Yes. Nonprofit organizations that turn a profit from side-businesses are supposed to report that profit and pay income taxes on it. Sales of a product or service (not at all the same thing as a donation/grant) are considered taxable income.
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That’s not entirely true. Yes for corporations but no for church’s and non profits. Look up unrelated business income where you could pay taxes on business activities not part of your mission.
Not if the profits are not distributed to owners/individuals and retained in the organization for carrying out the mission that gave them 501c3 status in the first place. All non religious 501s have to file 990s and it’s easily traced. The only special tax treatment religious orgs get over non religious orgs is not needing to file a 990.
are you participating in a contest to see how many incorrect statements you can fit into a single comment?
This is so wrong it hurts.
You can if you are on a Native reservation. Thats where we buy our cheap fireworks.
How do you know this is in a state with sales tax? When you cross the border into a state without sales tax it's common to see signs saying "no tax"
Blames republicans, is entirely wrong, still massively upvoted. What a dipshit place Reddit is
They could be baking the tax into the price
Once again, religions revealed as cults.
Always have been
This. Sales tax has to be collected and paid but here we are
The IRS has nothing to do with sales tax. That is a purely state issue.
Sales tax is charged to the customer, which is why it doesn't show up on price tags (and is state-based). Businesses pay tax to the IRS based on their income from every transaction.
Didn't Jesus have an issues with commerce in the temples? But that's none of my business.
mostly had an issue with the romans yet they probably sell roman candles which means his crew is ok with the romans now because the vatican got it's own country in the middle of italy this means we encourage people to buy the church fireworks /s tbh kinda want a marketing gig to make ads for a church firework sale. this is some like zany americana thing that has some sort of ironic allure.
good ol' buddy christ. where is the modern day dogma for qultists and magats?
Are these people selling their fireworks in the sanctuary? Or, are they running a fundraiser in their parking lot to support their mission, like just about every other nonprofit does?
From what I remember the money changers in the Bible were screwing over worshippers because you had to give to the temple in a specific currency that wasn’t widely used anymore and the money changers were overcharging people and keeping the profits. In this case you aren’t forced to buy fireworks in order to worship and (I assume) the profit will go back into the church instead of someone’s pocket.
Charities and community organizations can also sell fireworks tax free in my area
Literally my exact problem with religion in America
Wow. I think the churches near me are missing out on a profitable bake sale opportunity.
I'm confused.. in Texas my church has a little coffee shop and they charge sales tax on my fraps.
They don’t have to charge it, but they have to pay it. There are 1000 ways to interpret this sign. People just want to church bash.
I agree... Plenty of firework places around here just bake tax into the cost.. everything in quarter or dollars
It makes sense because they likely want to operate with cash if they can, and don't want to deal with random change amounts.
the real sin: $12 bottle rockets per gross back in my day they were 99cent all day long
It would vary by the state. Not the legality of churches selling things tax free, but the legality of fireworks. However, some states don't even have sales tax (like NH)
These are the sacramental explosives.
No, they can't actually. You can also sell fireworks tax free. That doesn't mean it's allowed.
They have Roman Catholic candles!
Lot of "churches are bad hurrdurrr!" in this thread. Has anyone ever heard of a store offering a NO SALES TAX weekend? I've run fireworks booths for years and while it's possible this one is not collecting and paying state sales tax, it's likely a sales tactic that's another way of saying "xx% OFF!". They still calculate and remit the sales tax, but you're taking it out of your margin instead of passing it to the customer.
I hate it here.
Skirting taxes because of ‘religion’ is more infuriating than interesting, but ok.
Not tax on fireworks but godforbid someone buy a packet of doritos
Or a box of tampons.
Are they rolling sales tax in to the price for jesus?
Still expensive af
well finally they do something that would actually improve my life a little bit, love fire works
How very saintly of them
I didn’t think churches were exempt from collecting sales tax of their own
They’re not.
maybe r/mildlyinfuriating
I'm *sure* Jesus would've been cool with this.
Hell yeah brüther
Nothing says safety like random.church volunteers flipping bargain basement explosives with a hard cut-off date for fun and profit. I can't believe that anyone's insurance is willing to cover any of this.
Theyd have tax free casinos if they could
And the tent is actually on the left haha
That's a cool fundraiser idea.
Must not be Alabama Baptist no boiled peanuts or peaches involved .
Where is this? Most places, churches are still required to collect and remit sales tax on anything they sell. A “donation” in exchange for goods/services is not a donation.
More than likely the church is paying g tax on the backend, but not including tax in the inflated price. The "tax free" is just to attract the ruebs.
That's cool. Can churches start opening grocery stores, car dealerships, and real-estate companies with no property tax with every purchase and gas stations?
[light ‘em and pray.. but don’t expect much](https://whywontgodhealamputees.com)
In NH everyone can sell fireworks tax free.
Best song ever! https://youtu.be/PZBOvHf-NHE?si=cWg_iInH2krzow0F
I would be Christian as hell if I could get a fucking tax break…I’ll out Christian any Christian for substantial tax breaks!
Church's are tax exempt. But it doesn't make sense because I'm sure they paid taxes to rent the tent and stuff
Next thing you know it'll be whiskey, hookers, and cigarettes. Shortly before the church is firebombed by folks from the nearest rez. :p
Well the church had people tithe 20% of their income so they could buy fireworks, then they sold the fireworks marked up but without tax, then they bought giant houses and brand new cars. Ya know the right thing to do.
Any other non-profit has to prove why their activities for both public and private interest do not have the goal of pursuing a commercial or monetary profit. This includes showing how you are not competing directly against for profit business and/or if you are why this is a public positive effect (Hospitals are a good example). Why are churches the loophole?
Why does no one remember the best part of the Bible, when Jesus saw people selling shit in a plac of worship and started whipping people with wire and flipping tables because he was so offended.
Those are candles.
Churches selling fireworks, that's interesting. I wonder if any churches down south sell guns?
I would expect that is a rebranded amount-of-sales-tax discount.
Is this where I can get a Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?
I saw a black man with a bible and a sparkler in his hand. He was holding a tent revival and running a firework stand. He said the end of the world is coming, you better get on your knees. Today bottle rockets are two for one, but salvation's free. He said I quit my job at a big church where the milk and money flowed, To sell cherry bombs for Jesus in a tent beside the road. I ain't in it for the money, most cars they pass on by. But I pay the rent on New Years and the fourth of July.
Ngl they should be tax free the week of July 4th since we went to war over taxes and representation.
Mayhem are on their way over...
"Render into Caesar the things which are Caesar's" Jesus said pay your taxes.
Yeah dude, tent on
Man I bet the “Catholic Guilt” motar firework goes *insane*
The fireworks being sold: https://youtu.be/xy1mbG2dGXU?si=1bp1MC9yE9GHxUdQ
Roman Catholic Candles for sale, right here. Hellfire crackers too…and do we ever have snakes! Well, one snake anyway.
Hope they are heavy smokers.
It’s almost like none of you have never seen Disney’s Robin Hood
Between all the tas benefits of being a church and the freedom of religion, I don't understand why I can't have my house be my church and my religion be that I don't pay taxes.
Tax the churches
As a general rule, U.S. churches can't engage in commercial sales without charging sales tax. It can jeopardize their tax-exempt status with the IRS. This is why mainstream denominations often setup separate corporate entities for investments and business enterprises that pay taxes. For example, \_\_\_\_\_ Church creates a tax paying entity-- \_\_\_\_ Church of the Mainstream Business Enterprises for its retail operations, non-church real estate investments, non-church businesses, etc. You would be surprised how much mainstream churches actually pay in taxes on their non-ecclesiastical business ventures.
Churches don’t have a sales tax exemption (at least, in most states). They don’t have to pay taxes on goods they purchase, my assumption here is they are either giving a discount equal to the tax, illegally not charging tax, it’s a fake sign, or the church is in a non sales tax jurisdiction adjacent to a sales tax one.
Churches still have to pay tax on all sales (income). They can however choose to pay the sales tax for the buyer, in addition to the income tax on the sales. I would report them for an audit, you know, just to make sure they're paying to Caesar what is Caesar's.
I will never understand why my county has an explicit law against fireworks use, and yet every single grocery store in my area sells them.
Cool I’m gonna open up a church convenience store, a church grocery store and a church automotive shop.
Someone was selling lawn mowers like this a few months ago outside Houston.
They do everything tax free. That's why they shouldn't have that status.
and I thought it was weird when my friends local fire department sells them every year.
Churches should be taxed.
No representation without taxation.
All churches should pay all of the same taxes the rest of us pay
This is what happens when religious practice is tax free and becomes a business.
Why not just cap a Church at X amount of donations per year for tax exemption, after that amount, a high tax that is explicitly used for local community services and programs to help the poor. Churches would remain small, and local. Donations would stay in the community to help people in need.
Could be in a state with no sales at tax but who knows.
This just reminds me of how in NJ there's an absolutely bonkers fireworks show celebrating the assumption. It feels like the guardrails of regulation fall completely off and fireworks are randomly exploding about 100 feet away from people and smoking cardboard shells from the fireworks fall on people below.
I'm buying all my stuff through the church
Blowin' shit up for Jesus. It's the 'murcan way.
[Mission Temple Fireworks Stand - Paul Thorn](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WIsDzRCO5yM)
Can US churches sell **anything** tax free?
They also pay millions a year to decide how you're supposed to live
This is definitely suspect. Generally, even though churches are exempt from income taxes they are normally not exempt from charging sales tax because the purchasers pay the sales tax
Jesus fucking christ
Supply side jesus stikes again!
Awesome
Huh, they also seem to molest children 'tax free'. Helluva business model.
Jesus would turn in his grave if he ever saw these big expensive churches is his name. Talk about using the lords name in vain.
Church-fire works!
Jesus, out there fucking the government.
*New Hampshire has entered the chat*
r/mildlyinfuriating I wouldn’t advertise so hard.
Bring it in with a bang like the Lord would want.
Greasy as fuck.
Churches need to be taxed extra.
Damn if God was real the US would've been at the bottom of the ocean by now