Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Non-Religious Tax Avoidance

By Max Wallace - posted Monday, 12 November 2012


This raises another problem. It concerns the ATO's current illustration of what a 'scientific institution' is. Their website illustrates their 2012 position by way of an example:

An institution is set up to hold conferences and meetings on aspects of engineering. Any professional advantage the engineer members gain is only through the institution's advancement of science.

This is contrasted to a 'scientific association'. The example they give is:

Advertisement

A group of frog enthusiasts set up a non-profit society to  observe frogs in the district and record changes in their types, numbers and habits. The society is established for the encouragement of science.

These current definitions seem a long way from the characterisation of the AFA by the ATO as a 'principally scientific institution established for the study of the science of philosophy and the propagation of study outcomes for a public purpose.'

Were a like-minded secular organisation to apply for tax-exempt status today based on the 1999 definition, it would seem unlikely to succeed.

At the heart of the AFA's 1997 complaint was the idea that since religion obtained tax-exempt status and atheism could not, this was a clear example of discrimination. The argument was made in the article 'Taxing the Godless Religiously' by Samela Harris in issue 88 of The Atheist Newsletter. The problem with thisprima facie discrimination argument is that it overlooks the other more secular possibility stated by Geoffrey Robertson at the Atheist Convention,

... the proper answer to this egregious discrimination is to abolish tax breaks for all religions.

If no belief or non-belief organisation is receiving tax breaks, I argue, then the government's relationship to both religion and atheism etc. is strictly secular: it favours none of them because what citizens believe or do not believe should be no business of government. As taxpayers we should not be cross-subsidising each other's belief, or lack of it.

Advertisement

This approach would have the benefit of cutting the ground beneath the feet of the religionist smear that secularism, as a form of government, is anti-religion. If no one is receiving tax exemption on the grounds of their belief or lack of it, government is strictly neutral and discrimination disappears.

In appealing for tax-exempt status, while at the same time decrying the tax-exempt status of religion through its publications, the AFA was, and remains, in my view, compromised.

To add more irony to the mix, a journalist contacted me recently and pointed out that the Australian Securities Investment Commission website shows that the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) received tax-exempt status as a religious organisation in 2005. They have kept quiet about it. So two diametrically opposed organisations – AFA and the ACL – are both tax-exempt.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. All

This article was originally published in Australian Humanist No. 108, Summer 2012.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

13 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Max Wallace is vice-president of the Rationalists Assn of NSW and a council member of the New Zealand Assn of Rationalists and Humanists.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Max Wallace

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 13 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy