With the problems they are having with the French government (and with other European governments) this does not suprize me at all. I would not be suprized if they close all but one or two world wide.
Are they really closing down branches in Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guyana ?
by aligot ripounsous 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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freddo
Any news on Poland? - or have the Panzers rolled in from Germany?
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Doubting Bro
BTW - The US version of the KM for November announced that Hawaii will not be a separate branch any longer and will be incorporated into the US branch (where it should have been anyway). I think last year Alaska and the Turks and Caicos islands were also folded into the US branch.
This is purely a business move and quite frankly one that should have been done long ago. You don't need branch offices in every country to run a publishing business, er, I mean religion.
They overexpanded into a declining market. Look at Barnes and Nobles who did the same thing.
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Gayle
(musicial note) 99 bottles branches on the JW tree,, 99 branches on the tree, if one of those branches get lopped off from the tree, there'll be 98 branches on the JW tree
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Desilusionnee
@ Gayle LOL
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aligot ripounsous
I wonder if this has to do with the French government eliminating the Watchtower's tax exempt status.
As you probably know, the French tax department asked in 1998 the former association Les TJ de France (which wasn't registered as a religious association at that time) a levy of 60% on all the donations in cash they had received between 1992 an 1996. In theory, that measure was merely the enforcement of the law but in fact it has never been applied to other associations and it is quite discriminatory against JWs. The levy amounts to 45 million €. The association has lost all its successive appeals before the French courts and has paid, so far, 5 million €, but in 2005 they put the case before the European court of human rights, where it is still pending. Now, well informed jurists within the French government think that the latter might lose the case, on the ground of breaching equal rights of french associations regarding taxes. So the Government is seeking to reach an agreement with the JW association.
I don't think this has anything to do with overseas bethels being closed down. Those branches are simply done away with because they lack the contributive basis of the local witnesses to support their own bethel staff and building maintenance. The increase in the number of JWs in these regions (as in many european countries) is due to foreign input. The new members are not so well off as the local French witnesses, who now don't contribute so much as they used to.