Romney has announced that Tuesday he will release his tax returns from 2010 and 2011. I'm hoping that there are accountants here that will be able to review the documents to see if the Romneys pay a smaller percentage of "tithing" than average Mormons, just as they pay a smaller percentage of taxes than average Americans. I'm guessing that he "works the numbers" to get a better deal on tithing. Besides, why pay tithing when you've already received your 2nd Anointing and no longer are bound to follow the rules?

OK, it's been a while for me... what's the second anointing and what does that have to do with not following the rules?

I don't know if mittens has been given his, however:

The second annointing is a 'get out of jail free' card (or rather a 'get into heaven free' card)...... a couple (its always a married couple) have been given their exaltation while in this life..... Basically, it means that when they get to heaven they are assured their mansion is already built and has had the broadband installed and the hot tub filled and heated.

It is a virtual certainty that Mitt Romney was offered the second anointing: nationally prominent, wealthy (major source of tithing revenue), descended from mormon royalty, ex stake president, etc. He's got all of the qualifications.

I cannot imagine him turning it down unless he thought it would be a political liability if it became public.

In the ward where I converted, the bishop's wife bore her testimony one time in Relief Society about how upset she was that she had not had her calling and election made sure LIKE HER HUSBAND AND HIS FATHER HAD. Her father in law was an apostle.

She went on and on about her faithfulness (and she was a wonderful person) and just did not know why she had not seen JC in the flesh "yet."

As I understood it, a person had the manifestation and THEN was called in for the ceremony, which is very hush-hush.

Anagrammy

Notice he isn't going to church on Sundays? Notice he's causing people to work on Sundays? Yep, a "special arrangement."

Anagrammy

From what I've heard (one source was a poster on this site a few years ago) the second anointing ordinance is ALWAYS given to a husband and wife together (one reason is that they 'bless' each other as part of the procedure). No way to confirm this, of course, but it does make sense.

There's no such thing as that, guys. You have to endure to the end.

He's been taking this campaign thing seriously for several years now, so I am sure that he has already come up with a way to be considered a full tithe payer.

So I think there will be no surprises.

he has heavy duty help on this.

Some of his taxes were paid directly by Bain so he didn't have to have his tax bracket increased by getting it as income.

Some of his taxes are paid from his own charitable foundation called "Tyler Foundation" I think. He passes money to it and it donates. I'm not sure what the point of that is, except obscuring the numbers.

Because no politician looks good if he donates more to his largest special interest group (LDS Inc in this case) than to his government in taxes.

Only the little people like us are naive enough to think tax returns and tithing should correlate.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2012 10:42AM by Heresy.

I wouldn't be surprised if Romney tithed more than 10%.
That's the beauty of the inspired flat tax system instituted by the Lord:
To the extremely wealthy, 10% of income is a drop in the bucket. When what you need to survive is only a tiny fraction of your actual income, its easy and often makes sense to give a a larger portion of your income to charity in order to offset tax liability.

I wouldn't be surprised if him and the church worked out a number that would make him look good. All the rest goes to campaign funds. It's a way the church can give him money without giving him money.

Yep, as predicted, Romney's tax returns made public today illustrate that Mitt paid only 7.0% tithing in 2010 unlike average Mormons that pay 10%. Similarly, Romney's effective tax rate in 2010 was 13.9% which is well below the "average" Mormon or US citizen tax rate generally believed to be 30%.

In 2011, Romney projects to pay a higher tithing rate, likely only because he knew his returns would be made public and would need to be spun to show a full tithe.

In 2010 tithing settlement, Romney and wife would have had to have said "no" to their bishop's question about being a full tithe payer. Their recommends should have been revoked. In the 2011 tithing settlement, Romney and wife could have said "yes, and we made up for our shortfall in 2010, so now can we have our recommends back?" Not sure if the bishop would have found 2 years of full tithe as acceptable or not, but the numbers don't lie. Wonder if Mitt & wife lied in their tithing settlements? More likely, I wonder if Mitt's bishop simply responded uncomfortably to the Romneys with, "We'll let it slide because your income situation is so complicated and your worth to the LDS Church too valuable" .