Sad that someone nearing retirement age had to file BANKRUPT after paying 10% gross income for 30 years.
Stay in the church, don’t be a Mormon, and the throat slashing in the house of the Mormon temple never occurred.

not a "correct principle."

In the course of some of my studies, I learned that at different times and in different places in the world, the nominal tax rate on income was as high as 90% or more (not necessarily taking into account various other taxes, such as VAT, sales tax, etc.).

It was, therefore, at least theoretically possible that a person could end up paying close to 90% of their income to the government (or various governments, e.g. federal, state, county, etc.) and 10% in tithing and have virtually zero income left over to pay for food, heating and basic necessities.

With deductions, exemptions, lower rates for low-income brackets and such, this extreme scenario was not likely to occur for most people. However, ridiculous situations coming close to this extreme would be possible for people who insisted on paying 10% tithing on their gross income.

Of course the "Brethren" will be happy to take everything they can trick you into thinking that you "owe" to them (in their capacities as God's special attorneys-in-fact). They'll even take the gold fillings out of your mouth, if you're stupid enough.

Note that the scriptural/"revelation" support for tithing found in the Doctrine & Covenants refers only to "surplus" and 10% of annual INTEREST. Nothing about 10% of gross income. LOTS of room for interpretation as to the meanings of "surplus" and "interest."

A conservative and reasonable interpretation of "interest" would be that you don't have to pay tithing on wage income at all. You only have to pay tithing on income from investments. Theoretically, for wage income, you are selling your labor/time at the prevailing market rate. In other words, you are making no gain. You are simply trading labor/time for equal value in cash. If you have a dairy cow worth $500 and hold on to it, you have a dairy cow worth $500. If you trade the dairy cow for $500 cash, you have cash worth $500. There is no gain. You've simply exchanged one asset for a different asset of equal value.

Moral of the story: Mormons are gullible, uncritical gluttons for punishment. People who are foolish enough to believe in glowing angels, harem-approving revelations, peep-stones and quakers on the moon are foolish enough to give all of their disposable income to a bunch of wealthy stuffed shirts who, not so coincidentally, use said income to pay themselves, friends and relatives (including through "laundering" operations, such as sending lucrative Church contracts to friends and relatives, etc.).

Funny you should mention cows.

Growing up on the ranch we had a clear understanding of tithing on net income.

In sunday school many decades ago a friend mentioned he sold a calf for $200. The teacher jumped on the opportunity to mention she hoped he'd payed $20 in tithing. Poor (though nice) city girl that she was was informed by my friend he'd paid less than $2 in tithing.

He then explained he'd spent $185 buying and feeding and otherwise raising the calf. If he'd paid $20 tithing he'd be in hole $5.

The flabbergasted teacher stuttered a bit and finally muttered she didn't understand us country folk.

That is very sad when someone goes bankrupt. It happens all too often and for a myriad of reasons. For this person or couple you speak about, it also provides an opportunity to clear the slate so to speak, and eventually have a fresh start. The judicial system in place is more forgiving of debt than TSCC is from those not paying a full tithe.