After 9-year appeal, Scientology wins tax exemption in the Netherlands

In 2013, Scientology won a major victory in the Netherlands when an appeals court overturned the verdict of a lower court and awarded the organization church status in that country. At the time, journalist Jonny Jacobsen helped us understand the situation, and Karin Spaink, the Dutch journalist who had legendary court fights with Scientology in the 1990s, put things in perspective.

“I think that the court is incredibly naive,” she told us. “It’s obvious that the Church of Scientology is not doing anything for the general interest. In the Netherlands, we don’t even get the fake public appearances that Scientology USA demonstratively performs. My guess is that freedom of religion was the focal point. The Dutch are very much fans of equal opportunity.”

However, that victory was short-lived because the Dutch tax authority decided to review the matter before granting the tax exemption the court had ordered. That review then extended for nine long years.

On Tuesday, the tax authority finally reached its decision, and did grant Scientology tax exempt status, retroactive to 2012. The news reached us via European Times, which said it received a press release from Scientology’s Dutch Director of Public Affairs. The release thanked the tax officials, who “have properly confirmed our religious activities and practices and our work toward the humanitarian aims of Scientology as of public benefit.”

The new status can be seen on the tax authority’s website, which now lists Scientology as an “ANBI” (public benefit organization).

We’ve reached out to Karin Spaink for her thoughts on this new development.

One of our readers who keeps us up on news in the Netherlands admitted to us that they were stunned. “How on earth did they manage this?” they said.

In 2013, Spaink told us that Dutch Scientology was very small, with perhaps only 500 members in total. After the pandemic, we’d be surprised if it wasn’t considerably smaller.

But as she pointed out to us in 2013, the amount of money that might be involved as far as paying taxes was less important than what it would mean to Scientology as a public relations victory to win tax exempt status there.

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Supreme Court sets date to consider Scientology petition

Yesterday, the US Supreme court “distributed for conference” the petition filed in July by Scientology in the Bixler v. Scientology case.

What that means is that at the scheduled September 28 conference, Scientology’s petition will be among many that the court will sift through to decide which ones to consider and which ones to deny.

Last year, Valerie Haney’s petition to SCOTUS was on a similar schedule. She filed it late in May, it was distributed in July for a Sept 27 conference, and we heard from the court on October 4 that it had been denied.

So what that suggests is that by early in October, we’ll know if the Supreme Court wants to take up the issues in the lawsuit filed by Danny Masterson’s accusers and the January 19 decision by California’s 2nd Appellate District, which decided that the lawsuit should not be forced into Scientology’s “religious arbitration.” The appeals court found that because the allegations of stalking and hacking and even killing of pets alleged in the lawsuit occurred after these former Scientologists had left the church, Scientology couldn’t force them into an ecclesiastical justice procedure.

Scientology is complaining that this is a violation of its religious rights, and four organizations have filed amicus briefs agreeing that the court should take a look at it. But the court receives hundreds of petitions and most are denied. The odds are long, but Scientology and its religious shills are hoping to catch a break. We’ll know early in October if they succeed.

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Now available: Bonus for our supporters

Episode 10 of the Underground Bunker podcast has been sent out to paid subscribers, and Jefferson Hawkins helps us understand Scientology’s new marketing ploys. Meanwhile, we’ve made episodes 1 through 9 available to everyone, with such guests as Patty Moher, Geoff Levin, Pete Griffiths, Sunny Pereira, Bruce Hines, Jeffrey Augustine, and Claire Headley. Go here to get the episodes!