The GOP Raised Taxes on Churches to Fund Its Giveaway to the Rich
By Eric Levitz at the Daily Intelligencer
https://www.google.com/amp/nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/amp/2018/06/the-gop-raised-taxes-on-churches-to-fund-cuts-for-the-rich.html
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To help defray the budgetary cost of [tax cuts on businesses and individuals], Republicans simultaneously pared tax breaks for workers’ fringe benefits, which is projected to raise around $40 billion over the next decade.
They were mainly trimming deductions companies have long taken for entertaining clients and providing meals for employees. But Republicans also wanted to treat nonprofits equally, which proved challenging. Because those organizations don’t pay income taxes, lawmakers couldn’t take away fringe-benefit deductions. So instead they created a 21 percent tax on the value of some of nonprofit employees’ benefits.
The main benefits affected are transportation-related, like free parking in a lot or a garage and subway and bus passes. It also targets meals provided to workers and, in some circumstances, may affect gym memberships.
Now, one can make sound arguments for taxing religious institutions, and eliminating tax breaks for fringe employee benefits. The former forces the government to decide what does and does not count as a religion, while also subsidizing many organizations that do not serve what a majority of Americans would regard as “the public good.” The latter, meanwhile, biases the forms of compensation that corporations chose to provide to their employees.
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