RICHMOND, Va., May 18 (UPI) — Some people recently laid-off from religious institutions in Virginia said they were shocked to find the state does not offer them unemployment benefits.
Carol Bronson, who was laid off from her secretarial job at Temple Emanuel synagogue in Virginia Beach, said she was told her unemployment claim was denied because the tax exemptions for religious organizations under Virginia law include an exemption from paying unemployment taxes, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Monday.
“I had no idea that there would not be any benefits for me after leaving my job,” she said.
Rabbi Howard Mandell of Temple Emanuel said the synagogue was unaware of the Virginia tax law at the time of the layoff.
Jane Dembert, who worked for 17 years at the Christ and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Norfolk, most recently as director of communications, said she was also surprised to have her unemployment claim denied after she was laid-off earlier this year.
Coleman Walsh, chief administrative law judge with the state employment commission, said most people he has spoken to were unaware that faith-based groups are exempt from unemployment taxes.
The Catholic Diocese of Richmond has a voluntary self-insurance arrangement with the state that allows laid-off workers to file for unemployment. If the claim is accepted, the state bills the diocese for the amount of the benefits collected by the recipient.
Soooo they don’t pay into the unemployment during their entire duration of their employment, and thus are surprised when they aren’t eligible for employment?
So are drug dealers going to be surprised when their unemployment claims get rejected too?
In most states it isn’t just faith based but not-for-profit in general that can opt for the reimbursement version of unemployment tax.
Jesus H. Christ, ain’t that some shit! I guess their church wasn’t scamming enough people.
As Nelson would say, Ha Ha!
#3 don’t worry. A sucker is born every sec.
Well God will provide.
Cursor_
It’s the same in California too. I say we should just take away tax exempt status from those that purvay pious ponitfication!
Don’t worry, god will take care of you.
Perhaps they have grounds for a suit against the church for hiring them under misleading conditions. This could keep some lawyers busy and out of the way of the productive part of the economy.
Exempt from the tax; exempt from the benefit. This makes perfect sense. God will provide, no? Oh. No. I guess not.
Of course, one obvious fix is to remove the tax exemption for religious institutions. I’ve never understood how that violated freedom of religion in the first place.
I don’t see that paying taxes infringes on my freedom. Why does it infringe on the freedom of religious institutions?
Oh well. It’s mostly an SEP to me, thus not something I feel strongly about … until the televangelists start making millions, living like kings, and not paying taxes.
Exempt from the tax; exempt from the benefit. This makes perfect sense. God will provide, no? Oh. No. I guess not.
Of course, one obvious fix is to remove the tax exemption for religious institutions. I’ve never understood how that violated freedom of religion in the first place.
I don’t see that paying taxes infringes on my freedom. Why does it infringe on the freedom of religious institutions?
Oh well. It’s mostly an SEP (http://tinyurl.com/5yemd5) to me, thus not something I feel strongly about … until the televangelists start making millions, living like kings, and not paying taxes.
Looks like I’ll be the lone dissenter here … er … sort of.
The whole situation is unfortunate — first folks get laid off, from non-profit religious organizations, no less — then are told they don’t qualify for unemployment.
Now, from one side of the fence that makes absolute sense: These organizations are not taxed, and therefore do not pay into the unemployment system. Neither the employee nor employer made the contributions.
From the human side of the fence, this really freakin’ sucks. Again, laid off and not even getting unemployment — that’s a rotten spot to be in. (And it’s hard for me to laugh at anyone in that boat in this economy.)
There are, as I see it, a couple of going-forward solutions to the problem:
a) Force all employers and employees, regardless of tax-exempt status, to pay into the unemployment system.
b) For any employers who are tax-exempt and who do not elect the reimbursement-style plans to fully disclose that, in writing, to employees at the time of hiring — and make it an entry which must be initialed by the employee. This at least takes care of the nasty surprise.
c) Get rid of the whole tax-exempt for religious entities situation altogether. Frankly, I think this is an idea whose time has come — almost every “church” in this country has turned into a political platform with a smattering of God thrown in. If Jesus walked again, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have time to heal the infirm because he’d be too busy trashing these places for besmirching his name. Many churches want it both ways — they want to play politics from the pulpit, but not pay the price of admission like the rest of us. (I’m NOT anti-religion, by the way. I consider myself Christian, in fact. But I AM anti-politics-hiding-behind-God. THAT’S true blasphemy.)
Anyway … I’m pretty sure that I’ve managed to offend EVERYONE here (atheists and right-wingers alike!) with the above proposals, so let the flames begin!
Don’t worry religious workers! Your reward comes in the afterlife!
As a Pastor working in Canada, I know that we DO pay E.I. (Employment Insurance) to the Ontario Provincial Government. I see it taken off my pay every 2 weeks.
Canadian tax laws are different than American ones I guess. I do know that we have SOME tax exempt status, but not FULL exemptions. We pay half of the Federal G.S.T (Good and Services Tax) and the Full P.S.T. (Provincial Sales Tax) on all the money spent by the church.
We are considered “non-profit” or “not-for-profit” by the government and every ‘not-for-profit” organization (Church, para-church, and social organization) must now submit an audited report to the government every year.
We pay our taxes up here for sure, and that’s cool. God provides.
Unemployment is not a tax. It is an insurance premium paid to the state as a safety net. Solution is to require all employers regardless of tax status to pay for this insurance.
To those rejoicing about people being out of work without unemployment, you suck. People that work for a wage as a secretary or the guy that vacuums the floor in the auditorium should have some safety net when the church has to outsource janitorial services or reduce the number of hours someone is on call at answering the phones.
Most people who give to churches give a percentage of their incomes and when people are laid off the church’s income goes down at a time when the needs to minister to poor people are higher.
Churches have the option of paying unemployment, social security and all that, they’re just not required to. If they don’t, though, then I have no sympathy for their employees who never paid into the system and can’t get anything out of it. You get what you pay for.
It’s true in a lot of parts of the country. I found out the hard way when I was laid off from working at a church body in Missouri. I don’t recall that being mentioned during in-processing.
To those of you who think it’s great that people working for churches can lose their jobs and end up with nothing, you have no soul. Churches employ a whole lot more than just ministers you disagree with. Any profession you see in any other corporate office is likely to also find employment at a church body. I worked in the IT department.
Not only that, many people who work for these organizations accept less money than they could get working elsewhere.
The church body I worked for wastes a lot more money than I would like, but they also give an awful lot of money away, doing things like providing food and medical care to parts of the world where it’s needed, building schools, and stuff like that.
Also, to people who work for churches and other charitable organizations, the recession didn’t start last year. It started sometime in 2000 or 2001. If there was a boom that happened in the mid-2000s, they never saw much of an uptick. Layoffs were an annual event where I worked, but some of us always lived in denial, that it wouldn’t be us this year…
Good…keep Government out of religion.
>Solution is to require all employers regardless of tax status to pay for this insurance.
Solution is to tax no one, and let people buy their own private unemployment insurance. You know, what used to happen before welfare and unemployment benefits.
#10 – Actually this is one rare case where I agree with you. Don’t pay the tax, don’t get the benefit funded by the tax.
#17 – If we still had a society believed people have some responsibility to take care of themselves, your’s would also be a solution. But….Obama’s going to have to take care of them along with the rest of us.