Do you remember why the "donation" arrangement came about?

by Jourles 27 Replies latest jw friends

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  Jourles

  Over ten years ago when the Society changed their format from a contribution basis(pay us for the literature) to a complete donation arrangement, what were you told as to the reason for making this change? Simplification? Easier on the brothers to receive literature? Better way to get the publications into the hands of the householders? Those were the examples I remember which were given to me. Not once did I hear about any Supreme Court decisions affecting other religious organizations and their taxable status, including ours. But yet, the elders knew all along why the change came about. Why did they not let the congregation know too? It wasn't until I "mentally defected" and read *apostate* websites that I finally realized why they changed to a donation arrangement.

  What were you told about this?

  (notice paragraph 2)
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  JH

  Good article Jourles,

  Not once did I hear about any Supreme Court decisions affecting other religious organizations and their taxable status, including ours

  I remember about 13 years ago when they changed that here in Canada. I was told from a ministerial servant, who knew an elder very well, about the Supreme court decision.

  The whole congregation wasn't told the whole truth. They just told everyone that things would be done differently from now on.

  I guess only a few knew the real reason why this change occured.
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  mustang

  Jourles,

  Do you have the next/last page, rest of the pages or a URL that completes the scanned document?

  Mustang
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  Jourles

  Yeah sorry about that Mustang. Now that the profile is working I guess I should throw in my website for my signature. To read the BOE letters on donations, go to http://www.dirtclod.com/yappa-ng/index.php?album=BodyOfElders/Donations.
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  IronGland

  $$$-You 'donate' when you pick up the mags and then ask for another donation from the householder. Society gets real paid.
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  foreword

  This was quite a long time ago for me, but if I'm not mistaken in Canada they did this to avoid paying sales tax on litterature sold. When you sell a product (regardless if you make a profit or not) you have to collect sales tax for the government. So even if at the time they wanted us to say it was to cover the cost of printing (yeah right) it was still considered a sale and subject to tax (around 5 % at the time).

  So by changing the wording and accepting donations they avoided this. At the time, this is what they told us the reason was. Also, you didn't have to give money when you picked up litterature, you only did it when you collected the donations. I think there was a box set up for this. This was in the early eighties.
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  bittersweet

  I never realized this. I always wondered why they changed the whole thing. I was glad for it though, because then I could just give the magazines away to householders. Others would tell me you have to ask for a donation, but I would tell them I already put the money in the box when I picked them up, so they are already paid for.
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  TresHappy

  Wasn't this from a case involving Jimmy Swaggart and the sale of his literature and souvenirs at his crusades? I know the WT filed a friend of the court brief supporting Jimmy Swaggart's ministry.
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  Jourles

  You're right Treshappy. The question I had was if anyone was ever told the REAL reason for the donation arrangement when it came out. As you can see in the letter to the elders, they knew why the change came about. But the rest of us peons never heard the real reason for the switch until several years later.
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  onacruse

  Tres, you are correct. The WTS filed as a "friend of the court" in support of Swaggart's claim for religious tax-exemption. As I recall, it was only a matter of a couple weeks after the ruling against Swaggart that the WTS suddenly had this "new light" about the donation arrangement. I've seen the info on this site, or maybe Randy's. Anyway, it's somewhere

  I'd look for a source except that I'm too busy feasting my eyes on Jourle's webpage! My oh my, Jourles, you've posted a gold-mine of info there! TY, TY, TY

  Craig (of the "running to OfficeMax to get more cartridges for his printer" class )