View Full Version : The IRS just hiked taxes on private jet flights. Pastors are not excluded.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/05/11/irs-just-hiked-taxes-private-jet-flights-pastors-are-not-excluded/?utm_source=reddit.com
In 2017, Texas-based televangelist Kenneth Copeland told his followers he received a very specific message from the Holy Spirit: The Lord had set aside a luxury Gulfstream V jet for his ministry’s use.
These luxury-loving pastors — including Creflo Dollar and Jesse Duplantis — will be doling out extra dough for personal flights on ministry-owned aircraft, according to a tax update released last month. Watchdog :eek:organization Trinity Foundation, which monitors religious fraud, reported last week that the Internal Revenue Service ramped up the tax rate for “noncommercial flights on employer-provided aircraft” taken between Jan. 1, 2023, and June 30, 2023.
When taxpayers fly on employer-owned jets for personal reasons, they must include the value of that flight in their gross income. The update shows that taxpayers will need to pay a $52.35 terminal charge for each personal flight — an $8.17 increase from the previous rate — as well as up to $0.28 per mile, depending on the length of the flight.
These changes apply to pastors, too.
How are they suppose to minister to the poor folks in Hawaii, Vale, Dubai, and the French Riviera? :eek:
F**k the IRS and f**k taxes!
hotbiggun42
05-12-23, 22:03
Are they now taxing all charities or just the ones they are trying to destroy?
Can we just flat rate EVERYONE, no religious exemptions.
If charities are earning a profit, they pay taxes. If they aren't profitable, they are a well intentioned hobby operating at a loss and they pay taxes.
If you have an income, you pay income tax. If you own property, you pay property tax. I don't like it but if I have to do it, everyone has to do it.
And instead of trying to make the 20 richest people in the country support 40 million or so who live at or below the poverty level, what if the other 300 million simply ALL paid their taxes and paid the same rate? Hell we could probably knock out some debt and fix a few things.
And if the rate is 10% there is nothing that prevents me from wanting to try and increase my income for fear of actually losing MORE money by moving into the next tax bracket. There are literally millions of money savy Americans who do not want to make any more money than they currently are because they are topped out in a favorable tax bracket. The IRS should realize that translates into lost potential revenue for them, but we have this perverse mindset that says we must punish the rich and make them bear a greater burden. And that is where the rich / poor gap comes from. If you can't jump from average middle class to very, very rich...you actually have less money than you do right now even though on paper you are making more money.
I would bet anyone who can use an employer owned aircraft can come up with a business related reason for the flight. That includes flights to the French Riviera for a religious or "climate emergency" meeting. Of course some of the 15000 new IRS agents will also need to fly there to investigate.
Andy
Can we just flat rate EVERYONE, no religious exemptions.
If charities are earning a profit, they pay taxes. If they aren't profitable, they are a well intentioned hobby operating at a loss and they pay taxes.
If you have an income, you pay income tax. If you own property, you pay property tax. I don't like it but if I have to do it, everyone has to do it.
And instead of trying to make the 20 richest people in the country support 40 million or so who live at or below the poverty level, what if the other 300 million simply ALL paid their taxes and paid the same rate? Hell we could probably knock out some debt and fix a few things.
And if the rate is 10% there is nothing that prevents me from wanting to try and increase my income for fear of actually losing MORE money by moving into the next tax bracket. There are literally millions of money savy Americans who do not want to make any more money than they currently are because they are topped out in a favorable tax bracket. The IRS should realize that translates into lost potential revenue for them, but we have this perverse mindset that says we must punish the rich and make them bear a greater burden. And that is where the rich / poor gap comes from. If you can't jump from average middle class to very, very rich...you actually have less money than you do right now even though on paper you are making more money.
A large percentage of the richest people in the US are hard core leftists who have much more control over how the country operates than those molded of flawed clay.
Pacific5th
05-13-23, 09:08
Mega-corporate churches are shit anyways. The least genuine religious experiences or teachings I have ever had came from them. The pastors are not in it for god. Basically good lol.
Can we just flat rate EVERYONE, no religious exemptions.
If charities are earning a profit, they pay taxes. If they aren't profitable, they are a well intentioned hobby operating at a loss and they pay taxes.
If you have an income, you pay income tax. If you own property, you pay property tax. I don't like it but if I have to do it, everyone has to do it.
And instead of trying to make the 20 richest people in the country support 40 million or so who live at or below the poverty level, what if the other 300 million simply ALL paid their taxes and paid the same rate? Hell we could probably knock out some debt and fix a few things.
And if the rate is 10% there is nothing that prevents me from wanting to try and increase my income for fear of actually losing MORE money by moving into the next tax bracket. There are literally millions of money savy Americans who do not want to make any more money than they currently are because they are topped out in a favorable tax bracket. The IRS should realize that translates into lost potential revenue for them, but we have this perverse mindset that says we must punish the rich and make them bear a greater burden. And that is where the rich / poor gap comes from. If you can't jump from average middle class to very, very rich...you actually have less money than you do right now even though on paper you are making more money.
Since US income tax is graduated, an income increase that surpasses your current tax bracket doesn't mean you have less money than before, it means you get to keep less of the increase. I don't disagree with a flat tax, but I would have to say the current graduated tax method has probably been more favorable throughout my life than a flat tax would have been. Don't forget that even with a flat tax, there would be a significant group of people who would fall below a threshold and still pay zero tax.
Andy
Double double, toil and trouble
SomeOtherGuy
05-13-23, 09:32
I'm not seeing any problem here, and I don't think the OP is either given his comments. Any flights that are plausibly for business ("church" haha LoL) purposes are not taxable to anyone. It's only if the "church" pastor is using the "church" airplane for a blatantly personal flight that the value of that is taxable. Same rule applies to businesses that own planes. As AndyLate said, there are often dubious reasons claimed for "business" trips, which may hold up or get challenged on audits.
I'm using "church" in quotes not because I'm not Christian or OK with real churches, but because pretty much any organization that can buy and operate a jet aircraft for the benefit of its founder / chief "pastor" is not in any way a Christian church. It's a fraud of some kind, masquerading as a church. My experience with real churches has never shown the level of luxury anywhere close to what it would cost to operate a private jet.
There are some legitimate Christian charities that operate airplanes, like for delivering people and supplies to remote missions. I don't have a problem with that. And I'll bet that the Catholic Church has an airplane or two, and I'm not touching that here pro/con. But a televised, donation-demanding megachurch that also owns a private jet? Nope.
Since US income tax is graduated, an income increase that surpasses your current tax bracket doesn't mean you have less money than before, it means you get to keep less of the increase. I don't disagree with a flat tax, but I would have to say the current graduated tax method has probably been more favorable throughout my life than a flat tax would have been. Don't forget that even with a flat tax, there would be a significant group of people who would fall below a threshold and still pay zero tax.
Andy
Not if it were a true flat tax. I would actually prefer a flat tax where each individual person pays the exact same $ amount and it isn’t deducted out of each check- you just pay it lump sum when taxes are due, none of this percentages crap and hiding it away.
Do you know how few employees the IRS would need then?
Do you know how quickly that would cause people to hold the federal government accountable to a viable budget?
Why should any one person pay more than another?
With our current system, the more you pay in the more say you should have with how the money is used, if you wanna have a graduated percentage based tax system then change it up to a graduated percentage based voting system- where the more you pay in taxes the more votes you get to cast.
Can you imagine if you were a shareholder in a company with 1% share and your vote counted as much as the guy with 75% of shares???!!!???
Our current system is beyond retarded and enables such blatant theft and waste. It’s ludicrous!!!
Sidneyious
05-13-23, 17:56
Taxes? We don't need no stinking taxes.
The government is just a corporation and doesn't need our taxes like we don't need them.
How does the IRS hike taxes on anything?
Taxation without representation used to be a thing.
Just to be clear, I very much support a flat tax. The only reason for the US tax code is to keep lawyers and accountants employed. If the government can do flat taxes for SS and Medicare, they can do it for income tax.
Andy
StainlessSteelRat
05-14-23, 11:22
John Cleese poking fun at televangelists.
https://youtu.be/c3NF349aEHM
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.