the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

A new Quebec ruling — full of musing about the definition of faith — concludes that Taoist Tai chi as developed by a Toronto-area monk, at least, is a religion and that its centres deserve to be tax free. It doesn’t matter that many of those paying fees to take tai chi classes are not really Taoist adherents, said Justice Michel Yergeau.

He ordered three Quebec cities to provide the exemption and reimburse taxes already paid by branches of the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism.

Yergeau acknowledged that tax authorities have to be careful because some property owners claim religious exemptions just to avoid paying taxes, as a hoax or “to ridicule the religious.”

“(But) this is not the case here,” the Quebec Superior Court judge concluded. “This is not a fiction or a facade constructed from scratch by a legal person to conceal a lucrative activity related to the practice of tai chi.”

The ruling dealt specifically with Taoist Tai chi, not tai chi chuan, which is considered a non-competitive martial art.

edededed wrote:Perhaps tax exemption should only be for those religions (or philosophies) that take vows of poverty, and thus realistically just would be unable to pay taxes. For example, Buddhist monks traditionally (in India) were beggars - they were not allowed to even handle money, so they could not buy anything. (This changed as Buddhism went further east.)

robert wrote:

edededed wrote:Perhaps tax exemption should only be for those religions (or philosophies) that take vows of poverty, and thus realistically just would be unable to pay taxes. For example, Buddhist monks traditionally (in India) were beggars - they were not allowed to even handle money, so they could not buy anything. (This changed as Buddhism went further east.)

A vow of poverty means the person doesn't own anything, but really doesn't say anything about life style. Years ago I was vacationing in Bangkok and my wife and I were walking to dinner. We passed the Four Season Hotel and my wife wanted to walk in and see the lobby. While we were inside a bus pulled up and a group of Buddhist monks checked into the hotel. I comment on the fact that Buddhist monks were staying in a luxury hotel and my wife said they were from Taiwan and although they were monks they were known to live very well.
I'm not complaining, in the west monks did a pretty good job laying the ground work for brewing beer and making wine