In Israel, only houses of worship and prayer are tax exempt. Other property owned by churches must pay taxes. For some reason, the Vatican has been refusing to pay taxes on buildings it owns in Jerusalem and now the tax bill is almost USD $65 million. Other churches also owe money, but the Vatican owes most of that total.
ADNKI reports:
“The debts in question belong to many church institutions in Jerusalem, and primarily relate to adjoining establishments such as educational institutions, guest houses, and halls which belong to the churches,” deputy city spokesman Rafi Shamir said in a written statement. [...]
The Vatican wants to lessen its tax burden in the Israel and in particular Jerusalem which it says should freely accomodate the three faiths that regard it as a Holy City - Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
Is the Vatican really trying to argue that accommodation to the three religions somehow entails giving their particular church special tax breaks? Would they argue that churches in general should get special tax breaks in Jerusalem, but not elsewhere? Would they argue that Israeli tax law should be completely changed just to suit the Vatican? All of that is ridiculous — they’d just be poor excuses to refuse to pay their fair share of basic taxes.
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