Posted on 11/09/2017 8:20:52 PM PST by EdnaMode
President Trump has thrown his support behind removing the Church of Scientology's tax-exempt status, according to a HuffPost report.
Twitter messages from a Trump family friend and top official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) claimed that Trump and his family "couldn't agree more" that the church should lose its tax-exempt status.
"From The moment I saw your series I told President Trump & his family we needed to revoke their tax exempt status. They couldn’t agree more, but please don’t publicize that yet," Lynne Patton wrote to actress Leah Remini in the messages obtained by HuffPost. “This is going to get done in the next 4 years or I’ll die trying. Knock on wood!”
Patton is a longtime friend and business associate of the Trump family who has worked with the Trumps since 2009. Last year, she spoke in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention in June.
Remini, who starred on the hit series "King of Queens," is behind the Emmy Award-winning show “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.” Season two of the series is now airing. The show is a documentary examining the Church of Scientology and its alleged abuse of critics, which Remini left in 2013.
“I look forward to doing my part to help put an end to this ongoing nightmare and blatant misuse of our IRS rules & regulations," Patton wrote to Remini. "I want to do more research on Scientology’s history with the IRS, to date, so that I can better understand what tactics have been applied and where we can pick up."
It is unclear if Patton ever communicated with the IRS, and a request for comment from HuffPost was not immediately answered. Experts told HuffPost that such an urging from an administration official would likely be illegal.
“For the White House or any administration official to try and influence who the IRS targets, for whatever reason, is wrong and could result in a violation of the law,” said former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission Larry Noble. “The IRS must make these decisions independently without any influence by the White House or administration officials.”
The IRS website states that “the IRS may begin a church tax inquiry only if an appropriate high-level Treasury official reasonably believes, on the basis of facts and circumstances recorded in writing, that an organization claiming to be a church or convention or association of churches may not qualify for exemption.”
“but you asserted that the tech didn’t work”
you’re confusing me with some other poster - i made no such assertion.
That isn't even a logical statement. Any kind of organization aimed at destroying the country is unacceptable.
We're talking about the largest insurrection organization on the planet. Number in at over a billion people with many that are more then willing to die to carry it out.
Who died and made them gods?
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I don’t know, and that’s the problem. Look what they did to conservative groups.
The IRS is the sole decision maker on who will get tax exemption, and there is really no guidelines on what constitutes a religion.
OH! My apologies!
You’re talking about islam, I’m talking about Scientology.
As do soooo many others.
“OH! My apologies!”
no problemo ... just thought you might want to direct your post to the correct poster ...
“You’re asserting that it’s always valid and infallible?”
No, I’m asserting that it can be valid, and that there are reliable witnesses in this case.
Germany used to have (maybe still do!) have Scientologdesignated as a terrorist organization.
It probably should be so here also - a domestic terrorist organization.
If there was ever an organization in need of being RICO’ed it’s Scientology.
There is no way Scientology or anyone that calls themselves a religion can't be a religion without showing that they are a direct violation of the constitution or a criminal organization.
I mean it's not going to hold up in court if they do pass something.
“I mean it’s not going to hold up in court if they do pass something.”
The laws against polygamy were explicitly aimed at Mormons, and the sole grounds were religious. Haven’t been struck down yet.
in order to do that you have to show something very wrong with the "organization."
Has there been a religion that was reclassified as a cult and forced to stop practicing other then the Davidians? (just looked up the Davidians someone named Charles Pace took over what Koresh left off. So they're still running)
“in order to do that you have to show something very wrong with the “organization.”
I think the fact that it was made up by someone who had no belief that it was true should be enough.
And we’re not talking about shutting them down; we’re talking about pulling their tax exemption.
“belief” is extremely subjective. Very iffy in court.”
There are people who heard him plan to invent a fake religion for the purpose of gaining access to females and money; and others who heard him admit that it’s all fake.
There’s no subjectivity here.
I heard of one church where they give secular sermons one day a week and sort of religious sermons on another day - maybe so that they would qualify for tax exemption. Their main beliefs have nothing to do with religion, just with "social justice."
It' nuts no matter how you look at it. it's still a "belief"
“Isn’t that a “belief?”
On the part of the defrauded. The question is whether LRH believed any of this crap when he invented it. The clear and obvious answer to that is “no.”
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