Roman, Abel

On November 4th, 2013, global health care giant
Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries reached a
settlement amount of $2.2 billion dollars. Johnson
& Johnson settled to pay this amount to resolve
the civil and criminal allegations of promotions not
approved as safe and effective, kickbacks to physicians,
and violations based on the False claim act.
This type of offense has been common with pharmaceutical
companies for the past ten years, but
the federal government still gives pharmaceutical
companies tax breaks which represent billions of dollars
in lost revenue for the federal government. With
this type of exemption, pharmaceutical companies
are given an incentive to commit fraud for corporate
greed while neglecting to put funds towards research
and development.

The separation of church and state was passed under
the First Amendment in 1791. However, Since its
inception the United States has not followed through
with this philosophy. Since colonial times, churches
have been privileged with tax exemptions. Nine out
of the thirteen colonies had some form of tax relief
to aid their churches. This right was granted to all religious
organizations with the expectation that they
would contribute to their communities by providing
aid to the poor. Through their constant reformation,
tax laws have achieved a more rigorous stance on
religious tax exemptions, yet lack the integrity needed
to prevent religious organizations from taking advantage
of the current tax laws. The objective of this
project is to analyze how the church went from being
humble, to a corporation that exploits the current tax
exemptions law, and how we need reconstruct the
current tax exemptions on religious organization.