Churches, Taxes, and Nonprofit Treatment

Every so often, the issue of tax-exemptions for churches and religious organizations in the United States comes up and raises a bit of ire. Of course, at least for the time being, it usually comes up because of an occasional meme floating around Facebook and Twitter, and not because of serious attempts by those in government to call the tax exemptions of religious organizations into question.

But what about tax exemption of churches and religious organizations? Isn’t this unfair special treatment? Shouldn’t pastors have to pay taxes on their income?

My goal here is to explain a bit about tax exemption for religious organizations, clear up a few misunderstandings, and hopefully improve the conversation about how to handle taxes and religious organizations by getting us all on some common understanding about the situation.