Taxing the Church

This book explores the taxation and exemption of churches and other religious institutions revealing that they are treated diversely by the federal and state tax systems. Either taxing or exempting churches and other sectarian entities entangles church and state. The taxes to which churches are more frequently subject - federal Social Security and Medicare taxes, sales taxes, real estate conveyance taxes - fall on the less entangling end of the spectrum. The taxes from which religious institutions are exempt - general income taxes, value-based property taxes, unemployment taxes - are typically taxes with the greatest enforcement potential for church-state entanglement.