If religious organizations were taxed

[AggregateDemand]

Since most of the people going after churches are intentionally ignorant of the codes and the workings of religious institutions, I'll do my best to explain.

First, many clergy have opted out of social security so whatever subsidy calculations attributable to tax-free investment schemes are largely specious. It's basically a wash.

Second, the $35B in income tax subsidies are not religious subsidies and they are not related to the church, rather individual income tax returns. The charitable deductions apply to PBS, United Way, and the Council of Secular Humanism who conducted the study to lobby against religious tax-exemption.

Also, churches don't have income any more than than other non-profits have income, and most churches file 990s to let the IRS know they have no profit or meaningful reserves. Furthermore, the organization conducting the study knows well that UBI collected/generated by volunteers is not taxable.

The entirety of the list is basically bunk except for the parsonage subsidies, in some instances, and the faith-based tax credits. The real cost to society is local property taxes and sales taxes, but as I pointed out before, the organization lobbying against religious tax-exemption is receiving the same benefits, and those local benefits do not cost federal tax payers anything.