Reece Barker (J.D. 2022, BYU), Comment, A Memorial and Remonstrance against Taxation of Churches, 47 BYU L. Rev. 1001 (2022):

Religious organizations’ tax-exempt status is a constitutional right rooted in the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment. The principles at the core of the Religion Clauses—as declared by James Madison in his Memorial and Remonstrance and supported by case law, statutory law, and historical practice—forbid federal, state, and local governments from levying income and property tax against religious organizations’ non-commercial income and property. This avoids intermingling of church and state, threatening free exercise, disadvantaging poor religions, tarnishing America’s image as a land of religious liberty, and increasing disruptions and divisions in society. Recognition of this constitutional right avoids taxation, but it also calls for adjustments to some current tax-exempt law, specifically, narrowing the Johnson Amendment and the Bob Jones public policy standard.

Further questions remain and will need to be addressed in this complicated and sensitive area.  For instance, the definition and breadth of religious, non-commercial income and property need further clarification. This further clarification may expand or shrink the current tax benefits religious organizations receive, but the constitutional right to tax exemption dismisses once and for all the threat to tax the non-commercial property and income of religious groups.