The Mormons' Books: 9 p.m. on CBC-TV and CBC Gem

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/mormon-church-jesus-christ-latter-day-saints-funds-charity-1.6630190

At the end of every episode of The Fifth Estate, we ask people to send us their story tips, and many do.

It was one we received earlier this year that led to tonight’s episode examining how the Mormon Church in Canada spends its money.

Like members of some other religions, Mormons pay a portion of their income, called tithing, as part of their commitment to the church.

In Canada, those tithings mean individuals get a tax receipt for their charitable giving.

The man who wrote to us has spent his life in the church and says he always believed the money he paid went to run the church and for charitable work, both in Canada and abroad.

That’s why he thought we ought to know the Mormon Church of Canada was sending millions every year to fund its own university in the United States.

Our research would reveal that over the course of 15 years, the church sent more than $1 billion from Canada to its Brigham Young University, which has three campuses in the United States.

The money move is legal under Canadian tax law, which stipulates that charities may donate to an educational institution abroad if Canadians are students there. Less than two per cent of BYU’s student population is Canadian.

Because of the tax deductions, it means the Canadian treasury didn’t get as much as $280 million.

But it’s not only in Canada where Mormons are asking hard questions about how their church is managing their money.

It has amassed a fortune in countries around the world, leaving some of its members asking whether the church has become more interested in building wealth, rather than spending the money to help the needy.

As we learned, this story reaches beyond members of the church. Because of the tax implications of churches and their money, all Canadians are affected.

We hope you’ll watch the investigation tonight at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV or stream it on CBC Gem.

Timothy Sawa
Producer/director, "The Mormons’ Books"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2022 07:26AM by Adieu LDS.

Yeah!! This looks to be very promising. The corporation fears exposure.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2022 07:52AM by Eric K.

Read the full cbc article linked in the first post. It is long and devastating.

I had been wishing for years that somebody would raise a stink about the financial deceit of the Mormon Church in Canada, and to see the premier news program on the premier network in Canada going after them hammer and tongs absolutely makes my day.

This is happening because Canada requires public financial reports from all charities. The US should do the same. God only knows what we’d learn about the US Mormon organization.

I can envision the Oliver Stone movie now: The Brethren.

The question is, “are loopholes blessings from ghawd or temptations from the devil?”

That is red hot. Siphoning funding for Canada programs to a private U.S. school. I doubt that's what most think of when they think "charitable".

What I think is of the friend who got me into the font. How he and his wife struggled and sacrificed to fund missions for four sons.

Amongst the millions worldwide who go without to "feed" the church.

And come to find out they can't trust the greedy leaders, who spout the party line: sacrifice is good for the soul etc, but meanwhile they take the (required) offerings from trusting members and horde them. Sometimes breaking the law, it seems, in so doing.

Cold-hearted, dishonest, completely disgusting.

I don't think they are technically breaking Canadian law, but their actions are so contradictory to what the law was trying to achieve that the law needs to be changed so that what they are doing is illegal.

Hopefully this will generate enough outrage to make that happen.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't think they are technically breaking
> Canadian law

Correct.


> the law needs to be changed so that
> what they are doing is illegal.

Hopefully that will occur.


The man who reported the church to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is a current church member. From the article linked in the OP, here's some of his story:

“Nigel Kennett, a Mormon and an accountant from Alberta, reached out to The Fifth Estate after he found out how his church is spending its tithing money.
As a chartered professional accountant, part of Nigel Kennett's job is financial audits.

While reviewing the books of a religious organization, the Edmonton resident decided to take a look at the finances of his own church, using the website of the Canada Revenue Agency.
He typed "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" into the search box, and checked the first hit.

"I was floored," he said.

That year alone, he saw on the website, the LDS church sent almost $100 million to its Brigham Young University in the United States.

The majority of that money came from tithing — or the 10 per cent of gross annual income some 200,000 Canadian Mormons like Kennett and his wife contribute to the church annually.

In fact, in the last 15 years, the LDS church in Canada has moved more than $1 billion across the border to Brigham Young universities in the U.S., an investigation by CBC's The Fifth Estate has found.

According to tax experts consulted by The Fifth Estate, the church's tax-free status meant the move may have cost the Canadian treasury as much as $280 million.

It's perfectly legal for the church to send money to BYU.

According to the tax experts consulted by The Fifth Estate, the money sent to BYU costs other Canadian taxpayers anywhere between 16 to 28 cents for every dollar donated.

"The tax provision administered by the Canada Revenue Agency is both legitimate and well-known," a church spokesperson said in a statement to The Fifth Estate.

Charities in Canada are allowed to transfer donations to foreign charities and universities as long as those institutions are on the CRA's list of "qualified donees."
If a school regularly enrols Canadian students, it can make the list.

[At times, the number of Canadian students in all the church’s schools is less than 2% of total enrollment.]

In all, the money sent by LDS to the U.S. in that time period [2007-2021] totals more than $1 billion.

"The church is taking away governments' ability to fund health care, the ability to fund education, the ability to provide other essential services," Kennett said. "It's done little to benefit the people here and it has done everything … to fill the coffers in Salt Lake."

-----

Kennett is a multi-generational Mormon yet after tripping over this negative information about the church, which he found so egregious, he reported it to a news organization because:

“Before Kennett reached out to The Fifth Estate with what he discovered when he looked into his church's finances, he tried to talk about these issues with members, reaching out to his bishop, he said.

"He just shrugged his shoulders and was like, 'Well, the Lord commands and so we obey.'"

Blind obedience – always a scary prospect.


Kennett says his roots in the church are too deep so he won’t formally leave, although he and his family are not currently active.

However, as the article states: "If the church considers someone to have broken ... covenants or to have spoken ill, they will excommunicate that individual."

“Kennett said he's at peace with that.”


It’s sad to know how the church treats people who don’t follow unquestioningly. Yet perhaps getting kicked out (for telling the truth) will be freeing for them.

It was quite an eye opener, Nightingale.

I love all the CBC descriptions referring to the cult as THE MORMON CHURCH. Hope it really gets under the skin of the TBMs.
Someone joked the other day that I wasn't supposed to call it the Mormon church anymore!!....and I chuckled and said F*** that....I'll call it what it is!

Right there with you LR. It's always been mormon, it always will be mormon. I don't care what the current flavor of the week is, it's mormon.

I've known about the church's financial wizardry for most of my adult life. In my revulsion, I refused to look closely, while I leapt free of the church. But, I always knew there was corruption hiding somewhere.

And there has always been justification for the gluttony and avarice of those priesthood members who climb the Lord's ladders in church hierarchies.

Financial glory always seems to go to the highest, most obedient, grovelling men of the church. Material blessings are granted to the patriarchy who follow the rules.

This may have been an awkward documentary, but it did tease out or hint at juicy goodies regarding the church's global billion dollar holdings.

The average church member couldn’t be bothered to ponder what the financial picture is re: the LDS Church Empire. And further, the obedient members would never dare challenge the honesty of all of the priesthood members who are running this game.

It’s pathetic how tithings have built this Empire off the backs of hard working, often impoverished, deluded people.

Hopefully the increased attention will prompt Canadian legislators and/or tax authorities to close that loophole in the law.

Isn't financial prosperity supposed to come from righteousness? Maybe BYU is just more righteous than Canada.

They even have their own law school, who apparently said "Yep, you can do that." What shysters.