After City Creek, I think a lot of people, non-Mormons & Mormons, started to really think about the church's financial position & questioned whether they were being ethical with it or not. This month, the Provo City Temple opened up & the Riverton announcement came out this week: http://www.sltrib.com/home/3441281-155/riverton-sees-mormon-church-daybreak-like-project

How many more projects is it going to take before the church loses its tax-exempt status? There have got to be some legal loopholes. It's just so wrong. Is there anything being done with their tax-exempt status or are their financial numbers being investigated?

The church's for profit endeavors are taxed like any other business.

Corporations that use this tactic use the number of entities to hide and cover up income and distribution of wealth to executives and to avoid paying taxes. I doubt the Jesus Inc. is any less corrupt.

These projects don't fall under the tax-exempt arm of the corporation, right? The "church" should still lose it's tax exempt status if they're funneling tithing dollars to these projects, but I don't know if we'll ever know exactly what they're doing. For all we know, they might have billions in investable funds from all of their for-profit ventures. What if it started with illegal accounting decades ago, but today they're actually telling the truth?...no tithing funds are being used either directly or indirectly? They may be scrambling to bulk up their for-profit business to make up for tithing shortfalls. There may come a time when they have to funnel these profits to the "church" in order to keep up appearances. The entire empire crumbles if the church facade crumbles.

with executives that hold positions in both kinds of entities.

Bank funds moved out of the US to tax havens shuffled around.

Funds from tithing counted as charity to pay for BYU many times over to allow export of funds from Canada and other countries.

Someday they will be investigated again. It happened in the 19th century and they got whacked. Now they have many senators and reps that will scream if the justice department ever looks into the mess.

We should also keep in mind that different countries have different laws and rules regarding the pay of senior executive management.

People must be quite naive to think that insiders are not profiting profusely from this operation.

It is also something to think about should this "church" lose enough membership to disqualify itself as a religious entity with multiple billions of assets under management.

I am guessing that someday the IRS will raid the COB, probably after information is leaked that forces them to act.

Should LDS Inc be forced to dissolve assets, which IIRC correctly are supposed to go to charity, I think we will see some interesting charities set up by insiders.

The church "Launders" its tax-exempt money through it's corporations like Bonneville Comm. Once it is taxable income they can do whatever they want with it.

I am with you on the "Tax the Churches" sentiment. That said, I wonder if it would be more realistic to demand more transparency for ALL charities. This would be pretty much the same requirement as set up in the British Commonwealth.

Keep the tax-exemption but demand transparency. I think this would be more realistic.

So you think the church takes untaxable money and funnels it through it's taxable corporations to make the money taxable? Why would they do that?

They do this so they will not be challenged with how they spend their money. Corporate Jet charters, lavish parties, that sort of thing.

Devoted exMo is spot on. "Laundering" money to convert it from tax-free to taxable is bass-awkward and just plain preposterous.

And they would do this to throw "lavish parties" for 15 eighty year old tea-totaling Mormons? I think you need a better theory.

There is no way the church leaders can separate the tax-free money from taxable income since the loopholes are as numerous as any idea that people can think up. The church feeds the business with money in the form of loans and the business launders money for church leaders. Kids, grandkids, and great grandkids of church leaders can get cushy $100,000.00+ jobs managing businesses and people in situations where there is no market competition for the job what-so-ever because the whole purpose of the job isn't to pay for employee services, but to give money to a relative in a way that can't be proven to be illegal. How do you stop that? Whole dynasties of mormon royalty live in a different world than the rest of us.

Most of the exemptions apply to donors who deduct "contributions" to TSCC.

supposedly all profitable corps (children of LDS, Inc.) pay taxes on profits, according to our super-complicated tax code; for example, Boeing & GE have made tons of profits lately, but pay Zero fed. income tax (per stockholder disclosures?); individual tax returns AND company (corporate, partners, etc.) aren't disclosed by the U.S. gov't; I'm not sure about Canada or other countries laws.

realistically, I think it may be possible to tax churches for local property taxes that fund schools, police & fire, local gov't functions, but that would add to costs and bounce back to church members who would likely oppose.

Proposals that subject churches themselves to income taxes (state, local, federal) just doesn't have any legs just now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2016 10:34PM by GNPE.

Totally agree. I don't like it, but I think it's a fact of life for now.

Not only the City Creek mall; but the land deals in Florida, AZ, PA, New York, New Zealand, etc...

I believe that any "non-profit" whether a church or not; must prove to be "non-profit". Prove your charities, philanthropies, arts/education, social improvements (i.e. fresh water, dams, teaching healthy living, new farming techniques, etc...) Should be proven.

It's time that the Corporations and for-profits be spun off from the $7 billion intake of tithing, which members suppose is going to Jesus and Jesus' works (temples, missionaries, charities).

I listed quite few articles/sites in previous posts and this is just a few of the recent issues...

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1754419,1755082#msg-1755082

Technically "the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS" doesn't exist as a legal entity. They do have non profit companies: the Corporation of the President and the Corp of the Presiding Bishop. COP runs more of the church-y affairs, while CPB is more earthly things (risk management, welfare is split between them in a way I never understood).

Their for profit companies are taxable entities. Whether they're dodging it all; who knows. No exactly an uncommon thing for businesses.

I personally feel that any "tax exempt" company should provide financial statements. Once they reach a large enough size, their books should require an outside auditor, just like a public company. The idea is that non profit companies exist for the public interests, so why not be pubicly help accountable?

In General Conference I remember hearing the prophet say that the church had been audited by such and such auditing firm and all was in good standing.

(But you people will never see the books)

should be tax exempt.

Federal taxation should be carried out in a way that doesn't favor anyone or any business

I think transparency is the best thing to work for here. And it would be far better to have it happen at the urging of members rather than increasing the reach of government. If members start insisting they be allowed to see exactly how their tithing dollars are working, the church would likely change over time.

The church has had their fair share of examples of leadership failures, and as such, members are certainly within their rights to ask for an annual tithing settlement of their own. What's wrong with a member requesting documentation that shows the money from the church's side of the table? If personal accountability for money is so essential, then leadership should stop being hypocritical and show they agree and are willing to participate.

We might disagree with how the church uses its money but it is legal the way they have organize. The bulk of the assets goes into the "Corporation of the President" which is a "sole corporation" and a non-profit. This corporation then invests in stocks, bonds, land, and buildings through other investment entities.

Interest, dividends, rents are excluded from taxable income to non-profits. Business income is taxable but you can take deductions from the business income to lower the taxable amount such as paying rent to the real estate entity. So if your cattle operations is profitable you deduct rent paid back to the non-profit real estate holding company which is not taxable.

This is very common with other non-profits but no one does it better than the Mormons. If the church does anything very well it is protect themselves with accountants and lawyers.

I have met with several of them and they are very smart and good.

I am not saying they are always ethical and they don't push the envelope big time but they do know how to organize their entities.