Labour’s Equality Bill will give tax breaks to Scientologists
From Cranmer
In this era of equality, in which all beliefs are philosophies and all philosophies are religions and all religions are equal, the consequences in law are beginning to be seen.
The Conservative Party has spotted that the equality laws being championed by Harriet Harman will force councils to exempt the Church of Scientology from council tax and business rates. A detailed investigation into the small print of Ms Harman’s new Equality Bill establishes that the Church of Scientology will receive the same tax breaks that the Church of England and other organised religions currently receive.
And Cranmer saw this coming two years ago.
Places of worship are eligible for a complete exemption from business rates and Ministers of Religion are entitled to a series of significant discounts or exemptions from council tax. Following a Court of Appeal test case in 1970 after a legal challenge by the Church of Scientology of California , premises of Scientologists are refused from being considered as a place of worship. This is since their views are deemed to be a ‘philosophical belief’ rather than a worship of a deity.
However, the Equality Bill defines as a ‘protected’ characteristic “any religious or philosophical belief”. The Bill adds to 2003 equality regulations that have already resulted in an employment tribunal ruling that a worker’s views on climate change were a ‘protected philosophical belief’ – a ruling upheld by the courts last week. The Bill imposes a duty that will require all public authorities not to discriminate on these grounds of religion/belief, with the Bill noting that this extends to “revenue raising and collection”. A further new ‘public sector equality duty’ will require all public authorities actively to ‘eliminate conduct’ which may involve discrimination against any philosophical belief and to ‘advance equality’ of those who have philosophical beliefs.
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