How you think about the idea depends a lot on the framing. As I understand, “we should tax donations” is actually “we should stop refunding/deducting donations”. “We should tax churches and charities just like other endeavors” is more direct. Honestly, I’m in favor of private (even billionaire) philanthropy, but we should tax all activity equally without carve-outs that distort decision-making, especially since the government is so bad at distinguishing useful from useless.
To the extent that the government subsidizes it (by allowing it as a tax deduction, and by failing to tax the economic activity), the government has a say in it’s use. Which I would prefer not be the case.
How you think about the idea depends a lot on the framing. As I understand, “we should tax donations” is actually “we should stop refunding/deducting donations”. “We should tax churches and charities just like other endeavors” is more direct. Honestly, I’m in favor of private (even billionaire) philanthropy, but we should tax all activity equally without carve-outs that distort decision-making, especially since the government is so bad at distinguishing useful from useless.
To the extent that the government subsidizes it (by allowing it as a tax deduction, and by failing to tax the economic activity), the government has a say in it’s use. Which I would prefer not be the case.