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| Witchvox Chapter: Wren's Nest News | Chapter Page Views: 54,925,519 |
 Hindus, Yoga Teachers Question Missouri Sales Tax On Their Classes Author: The Associated Press Source: Ky3.com Title: HINDUS, YOGA TEACHERS QUESTION MISSOURI SALES TAX ON THEIR CLASSES Some Hindus and yoga instructors say yoga has religious or spiritual aspects and shouldn't be subject to a Missouri sales tax that applies to recreation. The Missouri Department of Revenue sent letters to 140 yoga and Pilates centers on Oct. 13, telling them they must collect sales tax on fees for their classes. | |
| Community Thoughts: There are 3 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Is It Religion - Or Exercise? | Nov 7th. at 2:18:16 am EST |
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nasionnaich (Stanchfield, Minnesota) - Email Me Ok, so there are folks who are taking instruction in the Art of Yoga and Pilates - two very "healthful" kinds of exercise. Are they really "religions", or are they just exercise programs which happen to provide health benefits for both mind and body? If you want to define Yoga and Pilates as "Religion", then you better use one or the other (or both) in your religious rituals. Better yet, make the exercises themselves your rituals, that way there will be no confusion as to whether it is exercise incorporated into the ritual, or ritual incorporated into the exercise. Of course, if someone actually finds a way to have their physical exercise program defined as a religion, that means every personal trainer with a jump rope, weight set and/or medicine ball is equally qualified for that tax-exempt religion status, too. How about the Church of the Holy Rappel, for all the mountain climbers, or the Church of the Stitched Pigskin for those who play back-yard football? I prefer the Church of the Sacred Freewheel, because when I was younger, I thoroughly enjoyed bicycling. It was almost like a religion to me. Bottom line: If you want to have that tax-exempt status of a church, what you sell MUST be religion - not just another form of physical exercise that is every bit as effective outside any and all religious connotations. --nasionnaich |
| Overdue Solution; End Select Church Exemptions | Nov 5th. at 2:33:26 pm EST |
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me Within existing tax codes, yoga clearly falls on both sides of lines defining special privileges for government approved forms of select types of religions. At a Methodist church or at the Ym/w"Christian"A$$, it's generally a health practice (not just recreation) . Taught in Sanskrit or sometimes Pali or Hindi with spiritual focus, it's generally religious. At a UU church it's likely religious for some participants, and more social, recreational, or exercise for others, with fuzzy overlap among them. At a rented rec center, it's likely health and spiritual for most teachers, and a vague mix of the above for participants. IOW, in most cases, existing tax code cannot match the reality present in our society. That calls for changing tax code to be possible to reconcile with civil rights law and societal fact, not to carve up fraudulent legal interpretations that try to sit on both sides of fences while required to be entirely on one or the other exclusively. Complicating that is how the best legal evidence of what is or isn't religious in many cases is the "because I said so" test, itself rather difficult to evaluate within most US legal process. Add one more issue, and it's impossible to reconcile 501 (c) 3 church exemptions existing at all, with Constitutional law and societal fact. At present vegans, naturists, and BDSM'ers, are among those classes sometimes entitled to religious exemptions, and for which there are specific precedents in case law to evaluate, that are so tedious, time consuming, and costly to pursue, that in effect government routinely tramples such rights for equal treatment of legal equivalents to nominal religions, based on personal beliefs and practices. Tax authorities are among the worst scofflaws in that respect, because they're trained as extortionate dishonest predators, and because the historic underpinnings of tax exemptions for churches make some inherently unConstitutional presumptions since our Constitution was amended in 1868 or the 14th Amendment interpreted to Incorporation Doctrine. Historically, churches were assumed to be either state level theocracies, or state recognized formal organizations, and those a primary supplier of social services and other community infrastructure to the public at large. That basis is well established in Virginia history when Anglicans defended why they should collect taxes from Baptists, and is well established with Congregational and other theocracies in the Northeast. Reality has changed. The 14th Amendment ended the restriction of the 1st Amendment to Federal government only, and applied it to state and local governments. That in turn ended the validity of state approved churches, or use of churches as government operations that have since moved to tax supported secular agencies. Religions have diversified, and identified atheists or nonreligious become entitled as of 1868 to equal protections of law as are religionists. That means that it's impossible to favor all churches in tax code without discrimination against the unchurched, whereas historic church exemptions assumed Federal hands off local government control of churches. The 14th Amendment also applied the same restrictions to states and towns as used to only limit the USA alone. We've also seen a growth of churches that direct their focus to private members, and actively avoid the public social service operations historically expected of every church, and part of the basis for special tax considerations. To apply a public policy of tax exemptions for any church (and more importantly, donors to same) in a manner that treats everyone equally, it's necessary given present law and fact to make two major changes. One is to require nothing more than the "because I said so" test as to whether someone is entitled to religious exemptions, including for legally equivalent activities like sailing, woods in which to meditate behind one's home, and whatever activities indistinguishable from recreation for others that anyone personally considers religious. The other is to simplify the qualification requirements at all levels of government to what one person in a solitary path can manage, rather than impose paper and cost burdens designed to only qualify large groups. Since those changes to reconcile existing tax policies with the reality of legal fact would likely break down needed revenues for government, and be impossible to audit against fraud, the only other workable answer is to end deductions and exemptions for churches and donations to them, and tax donors and organizations equally whether a single person path, or an international corporation's outposts. This isn't an isolated wrongful application of law in this case, but rather just one facet of why the entirety of local, state, and Federal tax policies in the US cannot as they exist comply with Constitutional standards and an honest application of legal fact. |
| Tax Exemption? | Nov 4th. at 7:26:31 pm EST |
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Ahr-Ohn (Bridgeport, Connecticut) - Email Me I can see the reason, for exempting religious organizations from Taxes, anywhere in the Roman Empire, but I wonder how thin is the ice our American Tax Exempt Churches are skating on? Proffession happens to be a term of Religion, and our Physicians, Lawyers and other Proffessionals are all Religious Authority, inappropriate for special treatment under the First Amendment. I wish to applaud Anton LaVey, and his Church of Satan, for declining the Hypocracy, that comes with Tax Exempt Status, not that I'd do so myself. A responder at the site feels that what they charge for classes should be taxed, and what they accept as donations might be untaxed, and I wonder if this distinction is holding for Prayer, and other spiritual practices? I heard, the other day, of a woman who stopped for a distressed driver, saw there was a nun, and asked the nun, would she pray for a daughter to return to the straight and narrow, before extending considerable assistance... Should that nun also have prayed, six percent as much, that Jody Rell return to the Straight and Narrow? Arawn Graalrd |
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