Scientology does have a tax-exemption fight on its hands: But not in the US
Almost two years ago, we told you that Scientology had gained a big victory in the Netherlands.
After a nine-year appeal the country’s version of the IRS ruled that David Miscavige’s organization did deserve tax-free status, some 30 years almost to the day after Dave had won a similar victory in the US.
However, our friend scamofscientology, who keeps an eye on things there, has a really interesting new development for us.
It turns out that the huge 2022 victory was actually kind of hollow. Scientology is not so tax-exempt in the Netherlands as they were hoping.
“As you know, the Dutch IRS gave Scientology tax-free status despite our Supreme Court saying they don’t have to because of the commercial nature of Scientology,” sos tells us. “That seemed a massive local victory, but from a newly-released response to a FOIA request I got a copy of (a request made presumably by Scientology itself, but I cannot say for sure) it turns out that the Dutch IRS is refusing applications in the period 2012 until now that relate to ‘donations’ for services provided by Scientology.”
As a result, he says, the Dutch IRS is only considering tax-free the donations that were made by Scientologists for ‘Ideal Org’ building projects and nothing else.
“In the FOIA documents, the IRS estimates that 95 percent of applications are being refused. And it looks like Scientology is taking the IRS to court once more over the issue, taking the angle that they are being discriminated against.”
We looked over the documents sos was talking about that were released by the Dutch IRS in the FOIA request, running them through a translator, and it looked to us as well that the Netherlands version of the IRS has, indeed, come to the conclusion that if your “donation” to Scientology results in some consideration in return — namely courses or training — then it isn’t actually a “donation” at all, and is therefore taxable.
Imagine! A church with a price list is not actually taking “donations” for its goods and services! How did the US IRS miss that? (They didn’t, they just caved under pressure.)
It really heartens us to think that the Dutch IRS has more backbone than we imagined in 2022. But no doubt they were in for a hell of a legal fight from here on out.
Dave won’t take this lying down!
And thank you, scamofscientology, for finding those documents and bringing them to the Bunker!
Bonus items from our tipsters
The Ventura Org still has a pulse!
And another $100,000 (a “Humanitarian”): Hip, hip, hooray!
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Charitable giving has a dark underside. Not just Scientology, even with their billions they are really chump change in the big game.
Most of us will never have the problem of simply too much cash lying around. But some do. In their infinite wisdom (or possibly out of political greed) most countries have established tax havens for charitable giving.
If you can choose between sending your money to the government or sending it to a good cause, it can seem to make a lot of sense to choose a cause. The wise will take a look at charity ratings by independent auditors and sneak a peek at the books first. Lots of "nonprofits" spend less than 10% of their take on the "cause". The rest goes to administrative expenses, meaning salaries and big flashy events.
It is also possible to launder your excess cash by setting up a trust. If you designate it as a charitable trust, meaning part of it goes to a nonprofit after you die, it can grow tax-free while you live. If a few of your relatives happen to have jobs administering the trust and some of your vacation properties live in it tax-free, so much the better. As long as it has the fancy name and sends a few bucks to Africa once in a while it's all good.
Of course, we know how Dave does it. Absolutely none of that mountain of cash is in his name. He learned his inurement lesson well from his mentor Hubbard. Interlocking accounts, chicanery done offshore on the Freewinds, piles of nonprofit LLCs with suspicious names and invisible assets, Dave has the game down.
If he wants anything, literally anything from private jet flights to fancy bikes to bespoke suits, he just has to make up a pretend corporate purpose for it. A huge team of sycophants jump into action for him and the wanted item just magically appears. His name appears on no checks. No Miscavage bank accounts were harmed to make this movie. He can live like a king while on the books he is a pauper.
I am sure lots of others, Tammy Faye Bakker for example, live large in this way. Very few get caught, because this dark money also flows to politicians. It is the grease that lubricates the massive propaganda machine. We are supposed to live in democracies but in truth it is big money oligarchy that runs the show. Someone once said that once you realize you can buy a vote, democracy is over. Today you can buy truth as well. Who knows what is true?
Martin Luther started his career objecting to the practice of buying prayers for forgiveness, called indulgences. The medieval version of the Stairway to Heaven. In other words, you want to sin but still want to go to heaven, so you pay the professionals to pray for you and clean it all up with the Big Guy Upstairs.
Some version of this still goes on today. I don't know how to fix it, because some of the charities actually do good work that the government really can't or shouldn't do.
scamofscientology has reached Great White Shark status. Hip Hip Hooray... I love how all of the volunteer correspondents reach under all the rocks and find the wily clam. The Kingdom of Holland's tax authorities get $cientology and have acted correctly. $cientology is a quid pro quo business.
It is sad that the US Internal Revenue Service caved in to so many bogus lawsuits and gave the Clampire a tax exemption. The land of Heineken, Amstel so many other great beers understands how to be 'unauditable'.