Just for the record - does anybody know what happened with this inquiry into the AARP? The letter was written October 6, 2011...
Congress Investigating AARP's Tax Exempt Status. Why not the WTBTS?
by ABibleStudent 14 Replies latest social current
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ABibleStudent
james_woods - Just for the record - does anybody know what happened with this inquiry into the AARP? The letter was written October 6, 2011...
Hi james_woods, Good question. I did an internet search and found the following links to news articles in December 2011:
And the following link to a blog in January 2012: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/nonprofit/2012/01/congressional-focus-on-aarps-tax-exempt-status-continues.html
Hopefully in the next day or two I will search the Federal Register for October 20-25, 2011 for some sub-committee action.
I feel that the short answer to your question is the inquiy into AARP is still open, and that the time could be right to ask Congress to review requirements for tax exempt organizations. I feel that a major change to requirements for tax exempt organizations might influence dangerous cults to either change or reduce their available funds. At the very least it may be an opportunity to shine a light on practices of dangerous cults.
What changes would you like to see in requirements for tax exempt organizations?
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
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FatFreek 2005
Hi Robert,
why can't the WTBTS' business practise of extracting donations from JWs through building and selling KHs be questioned?
That, from your original post, interests me in view of many dirty experiences related on this forum -- along with the recent Menlo Park incident that hit the fan.
Our own Juan Viejo2 has a huge amount of time investment with that case, extracting every bit of news possible for his web site.
Kingdom Hall ownership, how the brothers pay for them yet relinquish ownership to headquarters upon completion (or payoff) has always baffled me. The whole thing stinks and appears ripe for data harvesting, for someone to publicly, and clearly, recap on this forum all the nuts and bolts of exactly what happens and why.
Len Miller
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diamondiiz
Ok, how about focusing on taxing ALL religions so no one is left out and if that passes wts will be affected. I have no problem seeing all religions pay tax on donations and contributions. Those who actually do charitable work that benefit the general public( NOT RECRUITING) can write the related expenses off so that religions and cults like wts would have to pay taxes on the whole lot.
KH fund is operated like an insurance agent, why can't that be taxed?
They want fire and police protection then they should pay for those services and not be totally tax exempt! Weren't there homes in US that burned but fire department didn't save the homes because the owners didn't pay the services on time or something to that effect? Why did fire department help put out fires at the khs in California if those KHs aren't paying any property taxes which includes FD and PD services.
They have volunteers working, they should still pay into social security or pension or whatever law affects people when they retire.
In Canada there is WCB, they should pay into that regardless if it's volunteer work or not, especially when these volunteers are full time workers at Bethel.
If they make profit on sale of property, the profits should be taxed. You can always have clauses added dealing with details.
IMO politicians have many things they can do to stop religions from just forming and operating tax free when they don't serve any useful purpose to the general public. It is a good time to bring these things to the notice of politicians especially when they have huge deficits and are looking for ways to cut back on spending and for ways in increasing revenue.
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ABibleStudent
Hi and @ FatFreek 2005 (Len Miller), It would be fantastic if members of JWN would write posts (or add links to other information) to this thread about all the dirty secrets of the WTBTS that they personally observed. Everything from JWs suffering from psychosomatic illnesses because they were raised JWs to JWs paying off loans to the WTBTS to build KHs and the GB retaining ownership of the KHs, to JWs losing their jobs from JW employers after they are Df'ed/DA'ed, to JWs molesting children, to JWs endangering the lives of unbaptized children because of prohibitions to except whole blood transfusions, to perjury, to dumping toxic chemical, to elders pressuring victums not to report crimes to police, etc.
I believe that there are enough stories about how dangerous that cults like the WTBTS, Scientology, the Unification Church, etc are to society to convince a Congressional inquiry that dangerous cults should not be given tax exempt status. In a speech to the Australian Senate on 17 November 2009, Senator Xenophon labelled the Church of Scientology as a criminal organisation, making allegations of members experiencing blackmail, torture and violence, labour camps and forced imprisonment, and coerced abortions, echoing other criticisms of Scientology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Xenophon). I'm sure after reading JWN members' posts that the WTBTS has its own dirty stories.
@ diamondiiz, I have no problems if all religions were taxed except on that amount of money that is spent to pay for the costs of food, shelter, and jobs training to help people in need. However would it be easier to convince politicians to stop supporting all religions or only dangerous cults? I chose to be selective in how I expend my energy. My objective in lobbying politicians for tax reform is to influence dangerous cults to stop using BITE control techniques to control their members.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert