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Bill: Religious Liberty and Equality Bill 2261
Details
Submitted by[?]: Progressive Democratic Party
Status[?]: defeated
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: June 2263
Description[?]:
| This Bill will end certain provisions in the treatment of religions. The first provision it will end is the requirement of "foreign missionaries" to register with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We cannot see any grounds, security or otherwise, for adding to the workload of the Ministry in a country where missionary activities are free and open. In particular, we do not see why identifying oneself as a missionary should mean different treatment by the state. The second provision is the tax-free status of certain religions. If people choose to subscribe to a religion, this should be treated the same as any other service they enjoy the use of, that is, it should be taxed at the going rate. Recognising the fact that some religious work is charitable in nature, this will be made tax-free in order to encourage it, as we do for any other organisation. In any case, religions which make a loss or break even in a given year will pay very little tax in that year, if any at all. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Government policy concerning the visitation of foreign missionaries.
Old value:: The government requires foreign missionaries to register with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Current: The government requires foreign missionaries to register with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Proposed: The government has no policy concerning the visitation of foreign missionaries.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change
Taxation of religious institutions.
Old value:: Recognized religions are not 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 | 00:27:15, July 30, 2006 CET | From | Telamon Patriots' Bloc | To | Debating the Religious Liberty and Equality Bill 2261 |
| Message | We support. |
| Date | 02:00:37, July 30, 2006 CET | From | Catholic Workers Union | To | Debating the Religious Liberty and Equality Bill 2261 |
| Message | We oppose. Religion is and ought to be completely separate from government activities. We should not mix church and state, ever. |
| Date | 08:09:16, July 30, 2006 CET | From | Fundamentalists First | To | Debating the Religious Liberty and Equality Bill 2261 |
| Message | We support... however we want to question, how and more importantly why a relgion has any form of profit apart that isnt charitable donations? |
| Date | 11:16:05, July 30, 2006 CET | From | Progressive Democratic Party | To | Debating the Religious Liberty and Equality Bill 2261 |
| Message | DLF, how does this mix Church and State? If anything, it turns special treatment into ordinary treatment, i.e. missionaries as immigrants and religions as organisations. SSPP, we think a religion's profit shouldn't be treated as charitable, since it might eventually go to non-charitable purposes like clerical salaries, so we propose it be taxed, pretty simply. |
| Date | 13:14:47, July 30, 2006 CET | From | Fundamentalists First | To | Debating the Religious Liberty and Equality Bill 2261 |
| Message | that is the point im trying to make.... |
| Date | 20:13:20, July 30, 2006 CET | From | Catholic Workers Union | To | Debating the Religious Liberty and Equality Bill 2261 |
| Message | Any profit almost any religion in good standing makes is made to fund the upkeep of the building and the salary of the few employees there. Without these things, the acts of charity are impossible. Because we believe this taxation will put an extreme hardship on organizations of good fellowship, many of which are very small and rely only on donations for their upkeep, we strongly oppose. Furthermore, we believe in the separation of church and state to such an extent that we believe they should never cross path except in conversation. We don't believe in the separation of anything else from the community (except possibly matters of sexuality and morals), but we believe strongly that church and state should never attempt to assert their power over one another, as it produces conflicts and the loyalty of the people can easily sway either way between faith and patriotism. Instead, we choose to separate them entirely. |
| Date | 20:39:42, July 30, 2006 CET | From | Progressive Democratic Party | To | Debating the Religious Liberty and Equality Bill 2261 |
| Message | DLF, it seems your argument is that some religions use their buildings, upkeep, salaries, etc. to do charitable works; therefore, income for all religions should be tax-free. Respectfully, that's an argument to abolish corporation tax, since some companies give money to charity for "corporate social responsibility", and they couldn't do this if they didn't make profits, pay salaries, etc. In both cases, we believe that the charity of one should not excuse the duty to society of all. True, there may be conflicts caused by taxing religions. But to say that the state should never attempt to assert authority over religion effectively gives canon law equal weight to civil law. How far do we go down the road of excusing religion from the law of the land? We believe the secularist principle is more important than the risk of conflict - that is, there can be no special treatment for religion - and we stand by this Bill. |
| Date | 03:08:53, July 31, 2006 CET | From | Catholic Workers Union | To | Debating the Religious Liberty and Equality Bill 2261 |
| Message | We simply don't agree on this issue. Religion is for all intensive purposes a nonprofit organization. If there was an option to abolish all taxes on nonprofit organizations, we would gladly jump on the chance. |
| Date | 15:06:34, July 31, 2006 CET | From | Páirtí Sóisialach | To | Debating the Religious Liberty and Equality Bill 2261 |
| Message | PDP, it sounds like someone is mad at God... Most religions (when I say most, I mean every one of which I know; I say most because my knowledge is necessarily limited) budget tightly for salaries and upkeep. The rest almost always goes to charitable works. Religions are by definition non-profit (except televangelists, I don't like them); it would be ludicrous to tax them. Though the situation article 1 is trying to change looks a bit like big brother keeping watch, I believe that if we keep a registrar of missionaries, we can identify those that are 'radical' and recquire extrication. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||
| yes | Total Seats: 0 | ||
| no |
Total Seats: 601 | ||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
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