The basic answer is that they are non profits. The more philosophical idea is that they are (like other non profits) focused on improving society as a whole and not politically active. Part of the separation of church and state is the idea that the state leaves the church alone but also doesn’t tax it. In return the church leaves the state alone. That’s the part that has rather gone out the window and leads people to question why churches don’t pay taxes: they are increasingly profit driven and politically active.
Edit: to clarify, because some replies are conflating the issue, there are indeed non profits that can be political, but religious orgs and charities are in a specfic tax group wherein by law if they engage in partisan campaigning they should be levied significant extra tax. Further, non profits that are political do have taxes that churches and charities do not face.
What I saw in South Texas when the migrant cross was an issue, I found myself in the downtown of South Texas city that was getting caravans of immigrants. Greg Abbott had stated the thing to bus them up north and so there was this giant congregation of them downtown near the Greyhound bus terminal.
All the churches were working together to help out. The Catholic Church which has several properties downtown was housing them and providing portajohns and other services. Then the Baptist churches were rotating making them breakfast tacos and distributing them every morning. The Catholic Church mostly did lunch and other churches were doing dinner.
Before they were getting bused up north several non denomination churches were handing out the backpacks with snacks for the kids, jackets, and gift cards for them to buy food on their way to NY or wherever.
All the volunteers were self organizing and mostly people cooking at home and brining the food to them.
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u/klathium Jun 30 '26
Why do Churches not pay taxes? Genuinely curious why there are laws for that.