Congress Investigating AARP's Tax Exempt Status. Why not the WTBTS?

ABibleStudent

While researching tax exempt status of organizations in the USA for my next legislative letter writing campaign against the WTBTS, I found this letter from Charles W. Boustany, Jr, Oversight Subcommittee - Chairman to Douglas H. Shulman, Commissioner - Internal Revenue Service, which was dated October 6, 2011. It just made me wonder if AARP's tax exempt status could be in jeopardy because of its business practises, why can't the WTBTS' business practise of extracting donations from JWs through building and selling KHs be questioned?

I'm trying to discover if now is a good time to raise eliminating tax exemptions for organizations that are dangerous cults, and to think of several different ideas in which to ask Congressman and Senators to investigate the WTBTS in specific and cults in general.

What do you think?

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Tax-exempt.Oct_6.11_Redacted.pdf
Dear Commissioner Shulman:
In the last few years, Congress and the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") have focused on the tax-exempt sector in an effort to increase compliance and improve oversight. These efforts led to new rules to prevent self-dealing and similar abuses, increased reporting requirements, and a well-publicized compliance program that resulted in thousands of tax-exempt status revocations for non-compliant organizations.
In addition to these new rules and compliance initiatives, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight has continued to explore current issues involving the tax-exempt sector. As you know, in April of this year, the Subcommittees on Health and Oversight held a joint hearing that focused on AARP, one of the oldest and largest tax-exempt organizations in the United States. During that hearing, many issues were raised regarding AARP's tax-exempt status, including its organizational structure and business activities, casting doubt on whether the organization acts exclusively to promote the welfare of all seniors or if it has simply become a for-profit enterprise. Indeed, AARP is not the only tax-exempt organization that more closely resembles a for-profit enterprise, rather than an organization formed for social welfare or public charity. Members of both Subcommittees have expressed concern that other tax-exempt organizations may not be complying with the letter or the spirit of the tax-exempt regime, yet continue to enjoy the benefits of tax exemption.
Therefore, it is my responsibility as the Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee to explore the current regulatory environment, review the status of new laws and ongoing enforcement initiatives, and gather information on critical issues involving the tax-exempt sector. Your responses to the questions detailed below will provide the Subcommittee with a better understanding of the tax-exempt sector and some of the issues raised during the Subcommittees' hearing on AARP. Please remit your responses no later than October 20, 20 I 1.
. . .

Paralipomenon

The biggest issue here is that the Watchtower is registered as a religious entity and as such is granted tax-exemption.

If they were to audit them to disprove non-profit status, they would need to find an example of someone or entity profiting off of the income. To my knowledge, I don't think any exist. The money is recycled back into the organization and it's coffers.

ABibleStudent

Paralipomenon - The biggest issue here is that the Watchtower is registered as a religious entity and as such is granted tax-exemption.

Hi Paralipomenon. I know that the WTBTS is registered as a religious entity. I wrote this thread to show members that politicians do investigate organizations when either enough citizens complain about an organization or a politician has been adversely affected by one. I thought AARP was one of those protected institutions that could do no wrong and that Congress would never investigate.

I wonder if politicians may be rethinking their positions about what organizations should be considered tax exempt and which should not. In Australia Senator Nick Xenophon is attempting to exclude dangerous cults (i.e., Scientology) from receiving tax exempt status possibly based on letter(s) from Aaron Saxton and others (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Xenophon). France also tried to exclude the WTBTS from receiving tax exempt status, but its law was overturned by the European Court of Human Rights. If shady practises like what the AARP did caused Congress to investigate them, what would be neccessary for Congress to investigate shady practises by the WTBTS such as the GB effectively owning KH's and not the local congregations, or discouraging members from reporting child abuse to police.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

james_woods

The AARP is basically an insurance company for profit, (with a side political agenda) while the WTBTS can at least claim to be a religion.

Religions are given much more civil freedoms than insurance companies in the United States.

Note also that the AARP has taken on a much more activist democratic party (liberal) political agenda in recent years. Their magazines are chock full of liberal commentary and thought.

This likely is earning them some fire from conservative lawmakers.

truth_b_known

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Brooklyn, NY and the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses are two different identies. One is supposed to be a publisher of books, magazines, brochures, and tracts. The other is a religion.

james_woods

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Brooklyn, NY and the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses are two different identies. One is supposed to be a publisher of books, magazines, brochures, and tracts. The other is a religion.

While that may be technically true, I still say it is much more politically realistic to take on a quasi-political insurance organization than it is a religious one in this country at this time. As a matter of fact, I do not think the complaints against the AARP are ever going to go anywhere either.

JeffT

This thought occured to me while reading this:

We think JW's are a big deal because of our experience with the organization. JW's think they are the center of the universe based on their delusional interpretations of the Bible. Nobody else in the entire world even thinks about them until they show up at the door.

The government will not get involved unless somebody comes up with good evidence of fraud, at a personal level.

ABibleStudent

JeffT - The government will not get involved unless somebody comes up with good evidence of fraud, at a personal level.

Hi JeffT, I don't feel that it must be fraud, but I do agree that people do need to write about their personal experiences. Those experiences could be child molestation by an elder and the conspiracy to cover it up. It could be suffering from depression or psychosomatic disorders that adversely affected someone's life. It could be how the WTBTS promotes refusing whole blood transfusions even for children and how parents/elders try to prevent medical personnel from saving children's lives.

If caring Senators and Representatives were told those stories and more stories from other cult victums (i.e., Scientology, the Unification Church, etc.) and how dangerous cult organizations try to retain their tax exempt status, maybe the Senators and Representatives would start to realize that tax codes are inadvertantly supporting dangerous cults. Why help dangerous cults when that money can be used to pay off Federal, State, and Local debt?

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

finally awake

The thing is, it's really hard to single out one religious group to go after. The government doesn't want to be seen as persecuting a particular religion. The witnesses are a large enough and old enough group, and they have the financial resources to fight the government if they are singled out. There just isn't a lot of political will to end the special tax treatment of religious groups.

ABibleStudent

finally awake - The thing is, it's really hard to single out one religious group to go after. The government doesn't want to be seen as persecuting a particular religion. The witnesses are a large enough and old enough group, and they have the financial resources to fight the government if they are singled out. There just isn't a lot of political will to end the special tax treatment of religious groups.

@ finally awake, I started this thread to question whether the political climate has changed from the past to ask emotional questions of politicians. It appears that you feel that it has not and that the WTBTS would use its financial resources to fight the government. Does that mean that the WTBTS would lobby politicians before legislation is past or wait until legislation is law and then file a lawsuit? If the latter, there would be a lot more hurtles to overcome before any laws are enacted.

The biggest hurtle would be to convince politicians that dangerous cults hurt members of society, increase societal expenses, and should be excluded from receiving tax exemptions. The second hurtle would be to convince politicians/judges that excluding financial support for religious organizations, which are dangerous cults, does not conflict with freedom of religion in the Constitution. It seems like an impossible task to achieve, or is it the only desirable outcome?

If you think digitally like a JW (i.e., only two outcomes, good verses bad, win verses lose), the task is impossible. If you think that there could be more than two possibly outcomes, then maybe a desirable outcome is possible.

Although it would be great to pass a law to exclude dangerous cults from being tax exempt, I would be happy with a lot of debate about dangerous cults by Congress and coverage by news organizations to help educate American citizens of the dangers of being deceived and recruited by a dangerous cult. Just peaking people's curiosity about dangerous cults so they would want to learn about what they are and how to protect their children from them would be a good thing.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

Congress Investigating AARP's Tax Exempt Status. Why not the WTBTS?

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