Is the Mormon Church guilty of tax evasion?

[kentuck]

http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/romneys-charity-church-just-more-corporate-greed-and-tax-evasion
<snip>
It owns about $35 billion worth of temples and meeting houses around the world, and controls farms, ranches, shopping malls and other commercial ventures worth many billions more
So Romney is giving huge sums of money to a church which runs commercial ventures and has no obligation to pay taxes on them. Sounds perfect.
<snip>
The church has plowed resources into a multi-billion-dollar global network of for-profit enterprises: it is the largest rancher in the United States, a church official told Nebraska's Lincoln Journal Star in 2004, with other ranches and farms in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and Great Britain, according to financial documents reviewed by Reuters.
<snip>
It also has a small media empire, an investment fund, and is developing a mall across from its Salt Lake City headquarters, which it calls an attempt to help revitalize the city rather than to make money. These enterprises are also part of a vast nest egg for tough times. The church expects wars and natural disasters before Christ returns to earth in the Second Coming, and members are encouraged to prepare by laying in stores of food. Farms and ranches are part of the church's own preparation.
<snip>
f I didn't know better I'd have to assume that this charitable giving to a church that primarily operates highly successful commercial businesses is just another tax dodge.

[tularetom]

1. Tax evasion is just the tip of the iceberg of what they are guilty of

[ruffburr]

3. I'm almost speechless-

Having had the distinct Pleasure of a mormon step father And the pleasure of his wisdom,I can tell you these people are sick mo' fo's,Thats All I have to Say About That

[clydefrand]

2. The question being, who has the most businesses

The Mormans or the Catholics??!!
Take there tax except away, and we would be showing a budget surplus in only a few months.

[demosincebirth]

5. I'm confused, what businesses are owned by the RCC,

[demosincebirth]

4. Two times more than any other religious organization

[SickOfTheOnePct]

6. It may be repugnant

But it isn't tax evasion is they are following the law.

[kentuck]

7. What law?

Is it in the US Code?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

8. Tax exemption for non-profits is in the U.S. Code

If these businesses are somehow able to show that they are non-profits, i.e., they use their earnings for charity, then they are not breaking the law.

[kentuck]

10. But they are breaking the law...

if they use their money to invest in malls, etc and do not pay any taxes on it. They're not even close to the letter of the law.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

13. Then why haven't they been taken to court to stop it?

Not like this is a secret.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

11. And bottom line

Whether you like it or not, if Romney is giving money to an organization that is designated as a non-profit, and he is deducting the donations from his income for tax purposes, it isn't tax evastion and it isn't a tax dodge. It's a perfectly legal, legitimate deduction.

[kentuck]

16. He "rented" the deduction.

I doubt there is a law that permits one to "rent" a deduction?? Perhaps there is but I doubt it. And the church received less than what was required by law in the process? How is that legal??

[RobertEarl]

9. Guilty

Using the logic of the churches who claim that we are all guilty of sin until proven otherwise, the churches can morally be accused of cheating everybody of Caesar's due tithe.

[Iggy]

12. Correction: it's the Mormon Business Empire

and the short answer is YES.

[TBF]

14. Here's a good article from 2006 on IRS warning churches

to stay neutral ... would be nice to find something more recent. I'd like the LDS to be investigated re their taxes on this front as well -

IRS Warns Churches to Stay Neutral on Politics
Opponents of the policy say that by threatening groups' tax-exempt status, the government is interfering with their 1st Amendment rights.
July 18, 2006|Stephen Clark | Times Staff Writer

he Internal Revenue Service is warning churches and nonprofits that improper campaigning in the upcoming political season could endanger their tax-exempt status.

The agency also launched a program to expedite investigations into claims of improper campaigning, prompting an advocacy group to charge this month that the program could restrict the free speech of nonprofit groups and churches.

Such investigations came to light last year when the IRS warned All Saints Church in Pasadena that it was reviewing the Episcopal church's tax-exempt status because a priest criticized the Iraq war shortly before the 2004 presidential election. Church leaders say they have no intention of scaling back their criticism of the war.

The IRS' new enforcement program -- the Political Activity Compliance Initiative -- was first announced in February and again in June through news releases and notices to more than 15,000 tax-exempt organizations, numerous church denominations and tax preparers.

Under the program, the IRS will no longer wait for an annual tax return to be filed or the tax year to end before investigating allegations of wrongful campaigning. A three-member committee will make an initial review of complaints and then vote on whether to pursue the investigation in detail ...

More here: http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/18/local/me-irs18

[TexasProgresive]

15. Church owned commercial enterprises are not tax exempt

4. No Tax Exemptions for Commercial Activity
Tax exemptions are almost entirely restricted to those affairs which are religious rather than commercial in nature. Thus, there are numerous tax exemptions on property owned by churches and used for religious worship, but exemptions are normally denied on property used for commerce and business. The site of an actual church will be exempt, but the site of a church-owned shoe store will rarely, if ever, be exempt.

Court Cases:

Gibbons v. District of Columbia
Diffenderfer v. Central Baptist Church

The same is true for income from sales. Money a church receives from donations of members and from financial investments are normally treated as tax-exempt. On the other hand, money which a church receives from the sale of goods and services — even including goods like religious books and magazines — will normally have sales tax applied, though not income tax at the other end.

More: Commercial Tax Exemptions for Church Businesses
http://atheism.about.com/od/churchestaxexemptions/a/overview.htm