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Bill: Religious Reform Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Green Party of Baltusia (GPB)
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: April 4879
Description[?]:
| Upon the passage of this bill, religious organizations will be taxed as if they were regular companies, exempting charitable donations, and teacher-led prayers will be prohibited, even in religious schools. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change
Taxation of religious institutions.
Old value:: No religions are taxed.
Current: Religions are treated as companies, and all profit is taxed, however, charitable donations are not taxed.
Proposed: Religions are treated as companies, and all profit is taxed, however, charitable donations are not taxed.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 00:36:06, January 16, 2021 CET | From | Green Party of Baltusia (GPB) | To | Debating the Religious Reform Act |
| Message | Considering the controversial nature of this bill, since religious issues are typically hotly contested between left and right elements, the Green Party will refrain from bringing it to a vote until all necessary parties have discussed the issue to a satisfactory extent. |
| Date | 00:48:10, January 16, 2021 CET | From | Free Nationalist Party of Baltusia (FNP) | To | Debating the Religious Reform Act |
| Message | Banning teacher lead prayers in religious schools infringes on the freedom of religion. Taxing religions is potentially dangerous because it can lead to government persecution of religious people and groups. |
| Date | 01:02:26, January 16, 2021 CET | From | Green Party of Baltusia (GPB) | To | Debating the Religious Reform Act |
| Message | In the spirit of compromise, the Green Party will remove the provision regarding teacher-led prayers, but remains stalwart on the matter of taxing religious organizations. We believe that it is more of an infringement on the freedom of religion to not actually tax religious bodies, since excepting organizations from taxes based upon religious status is a concerning double standard that almost could incentivize the creation of religious organizations for the purposes of tax avoidance and the shrinkage of secular institutions in the private sector. |
| Date | 01:06:58, January 16, 2021 CET | From | Free Nationalist Party of Baltusia (FNP) | To | Debating the Religious Reform Act |
| Message | Does a atheist have to pay taxes for being a atheist? |
| Date | 01:25:17, January 16, 2021 CET | From | Green Party of Baltusia (GPB) | To | Debating the Religious Reform Act |
| Message | No, but neither do religious people have to pay taxes for being religious. The difference is when you create an organization for the purpose of spreading that religion. Who are we to stop collecting taxes on an organization if it is religious? That, to me, sounds like an unjust discrimination on a religious basis. If they wish to survive, they may survive off of traditional means such as donations, which will not be taxed. If they branch out, however, to other forms of income, those should be perfectly taxable and to do anything else is to discriminate against secular organizations. |
| Date | 01:34:30, January 16, 2021 CET | From | Free Nationalist Party of Baltusia (FNP) | To | Debating the Religious Reform Act |
| Message | The FNP will not support this bill at all. It is too tyrannical. The government has no right to tax organization’s for their beliefs. Because at the end of the day, that is exactly what it is. A tax on religion. |
| Date | 01:38:41, January 16, 2021 CET | From | Green Party of Baltusia (GPB) | To | Debating the Religious Reform Act |
| Message | And the GPB believes that to do anything else would be a tax on organizations which are not religious. All we aim to do with this legislation is remove an unjust discrimination in our tax laws, but we shall not push the issue further unto the Free Nationalist Party, since they seem concretely devoted to their cause. We are, however, quite eager to hear the opinions from the more.. liberal sect of our Congress. |
| Date | 02:28:31, January 16, 2021 CET | From | National Progressive Party (NPP) | To | Debating the Religious Reform Act |
| Message | All this law will do is remove the Religious exception on Corporate Taxes, I would also like to implement a clause that bars religious institutions from taking political stances in order to further enforce separation of Church and State. |
| Date | 02:39:54, January 16, 2021 CET | From | Green Party of Baltusia (GPB) | To | Debating the Religious Reform Act |
| Message | Whilst the Green Party agrees with such a sentiment, we both do not believe the populace would support such a restriction nor would it survive future scrutiny by our Congresses-to-come. However, we are still curious about the National Progressive Party’s view on this issue and would be more than willing to discuss the introduction of further articles into this bill. |
| Date | 18:37:31, January 17, 2021 CET | From | Royal Credit Party (RCP) | To | Debating the Religious Reform Act |
| Message | We believe that taxing the profits of religious organizations is a fair and balanced compromise, though we would not support any further taxation. We should do everything in our power to discourage religious organizations from operating on profit, and this bill certainly wouldn't hinder achieving that goal. The RYEP will cautiously support this bill. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes | Total Seats: 229 | ||||
| no | Total Seats: 164 | ||||
| abstain |
Total Seats: 42 |
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