30 most controversial Bill Maher moments

18. Bill Maher says we need to start taxing all churches

Nobody likes getting taxed. We all work so hard for our money and it’s never pleasant to be forced to hand a chunk of it away to Uncle Sam. But for as much as that sucks, it’s even worse when you see others skating around the responsibility. Especially when they have so much more money than most of us ever will.

Bill Maher brings this up on Real Time, specifically pointing out churches. Ranging across all religions, none of the churches in the United States have to pay any income tax. This remains true even when they have such lavish, extravagant buildings, such as the Scientology Center in Hollywood. Altogether, churches own $600 billion in property, and don’t pay any kind of taxes whatsoever.

Maher takes the controversial stance of suggesting churches need to be taxed like the rest of us. They haven’t done that since 1970, and since then, religion has only gotten less popular. With religion in general seeing a steady decline in popularity, Maher says that this tax loophole for the religions needs to be closed. The comments obviously aren’t very well received by those within the various religious communities.