Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!

sacolton

$79 million tax demand on Jehovah’s Witnesses threatens freedom of religion

STRASBOURG—On September 21, 2010, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled unanimously that the complaint filed by Jehovah’s Witnesses in France is admissible regarding alleged interference with their freedom of religion.

The government of France had imposed a retroactive 60-percent tax on all religious offerings donated to Association Les Témoins de Jéhovah (also referred to as the Christian Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses of France) over a period of four years from 1993 to 1996. The government initially demanded a total payment of about 45 million euros. The amount demanded is now more than 57 million euros (more than $79,000,000 USD), which far exceeds the assets of the association.

The ECHR took note of the fact that throughout the court proceedings within France, Jehovah’s Witnesses had consistently maintained that the contested tax was a direct attack on their religious freedom. In fact, it had been imposed on them within the context of the France government’s ‘fight’ against so-called ‘sects.’ Jehovah’s Witnesses contend that since the retroactive 60-percent tax applied to all donations received over a period of four years such a tax was impossible to pay since the donations had already been used for the ongoing operating expenses of the association. Thus, as argued by Jehovah’s Witnesses, the 60-percent retroactive tax was simply a fiscal weapon used with the purpose of closing down the headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses in France simply because they appeared on the government’s “black list.”

The Court must now proceed to examine the merits of the case to determine whether or not the taxation scheme of the French government interfered with the religious freedom of Jehovah’s Witnesses in France.

A copy of the Court’s press release on the September 21, 2010, admissibility decision can be found on its web site athttp://www.echr.coe.int/echr/Homepage_EN.

Contacts:
France: Jean-Claude Pons, tel. +33 2 32 25 55 55
USA: Philip Brumley, Office of General Counsel, tel. +1 845 306 0711
USA: J.R. Brown, tel. +1 718 560 5600

Last updated 07 October 2010 12:50:13 GMT

debator

Well done Jehovah's witnesses.

France in it's greed and bias has overeached itself.

isaacaustin

Reniaa, hang on to your panties. It was ruled admissable in the case..the case is not over or decided yet.

Hopefully the charges end up standing..time will tell.

Soldier77

If this goes through and France wins the case, this is just the begining of other governments catching on and seeing a cash cow that needs to be taken to slaughter.

isaacaustin

I totally agree soldiar77, it would be a huge precedent.

isaacaustin

In the US at least, Congress has the authority to tax all income, from whatever source derived. All exclusions/exemptions/deductions are by the grace of Congress...as is a tax-exempt status. If the governemnt can be convinced the status is abused they can revoke the status. Or they can eliminate all religions from the class of tax-exempt.