Television host Bill Maher is calling for taxes for religion, equating it to alcohol and cigarettes.

"If we levy taxes — sin taxes, they call them — on things that are bad to get people to stop doing them, why in Heaven's name don't we tax religion? A sexist, homophobic, magic act that's been used to justify everything from genital mutilation to genocide. You want to raise the tax on tobacco so kids don't get cancer? Okay, but let's put one on Sunday school so they don't get stupid," Maher said in a report by Christian Daily.

Maher, a known atheist, has been vocal about his perception of religion as harmful to society.

He lamented that religious groups and institutions in the US have properties amounting to $600 billion and yet they are exempt from paying taxes.

The television host also tagged religion as the cause of conflict in society, and linked it to child sex abuse and the terrorist acts of the Islamic State and Boko Haram and child sex abuse.

"Americans are losing their religion because they're catching on that religions do much more harm than good. Who enabled child sex abuse for centuries? What's the common thread between ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, and most other terrorist groups in the world? Who's behind the new law in Mississippi that says Mississippi now cannot, among other things, force a baker to bake for a gay wedding?" he ranted.