Exhibit 434 ยท Magazine research report
Research Report: How Secular Humanists (and Everyone Else) Subsidize Religion in the United States
we are fairly confident that our estimates are on the conservative end of the subsidies provided to religions by governments in the United States.
Estimates about $71 billion a year in government subsidy to religion: federal income tax $35.3 billion; state income tax $6.1 billion; property tax $26.2 billion; investment tax $41 million; parsonage $1.2 billion; Faith-Based Initiatives $2.2 billion. Method assumes top federal corporate rate on religious giving, 335,000 congregations at an average $1.7 million property value from a 47-church Tampa sample. Authors say they could not estimate local taxes, the donor deduction, sales tax, the SECA exemption or related business income. Not peer reviewed; published by a secular humanist council.
- Source
- Cragun, Yeager and Vega, Free Inquiry 32(4), pp. 39-46
- Date
- June/July 2012
- Quoted from
- p. 43
- Grade
- Reported
- Document
- https://www.ryantcragun.com/?p=158
- Accessed
- 2026-11-09
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- Published in Free Inquiry, the magazine of the Council for Secular Humanism; not peer reviewed.