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.”
Think for a minute. You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn't?
Nothing could possibly go wrong with that concept, even under a Democratic administration, right?
I question why any church or religious organization should get special treatment from the IRS or tax code.
You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn’t?
= = =
Investigate Scientology for Organized Crime, or RICO, or kidnapping, or the other laws they break.
“You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn’t?”
Uh, tax exemption is about “valid religion”? How about taxing all churches or taxing NONE. Taxes are punishment anyway. There should only be sales tax. That’s all. Interstate sales = tax goes to the Feds. Intrastate sales = State tax. Period. No more confusion. No more bureaucracy. Simple. You have already paid ALL YOUR TAXES in the counter or during online checkout. No back-taxes. No refunds. No deductions. No NOTHING. Simple.
It should, asking with Islam.
In theory I agree that I don’t want bureaucrats deciding what religions are valid.
But in practice, we already have them deciding all sorts of similar things - like whether TEA Party organizations deserve tax exempt status, whose tax returns should be audited, etc.
It is only conservatives who play fair. We need to clean house in order to allow us to play fair. Following the rules and behaving like gentlemen when the opposition behaves like street thugs is a recipe for extinction.
Liberals, communists, terrorists, fake religions, and all sorts of other scammers consistently and frequently abuse the letter of the law. It’s time to clamp down on this and fight fire with fire. For the record, I don’t think islam qualifies as a religion, either.
Islam should have no tax exempt status.
>>I question why any church or religious organization should get special treatment from the IRS or tax code.
But as long as they do; how about we at least remove this money-making scheme of brainwashing cult from the list?
Yet, we have jihadis hiding behind the “religion” of a murderous, totalitarian cult.
>>>You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn’t?
Um, they do now.
And if you can’t remove Scientology from that list, you either can’t remove anyone; or, you don’t know what it’s all about.
The HuffPost and The Hill, two hardcore Dem media organs, are selling a story.
Bah.
Fine with a lot of reasonable people if the Scientologists lost heir tax-exempt “religious” status.
Scientology is a cult, it is not a religion!
“You want federal bureaucrats to decide what is a valid religion and what isn’t?”
That’s exactly what they do already. You think every group of crackpots that claim they are a “religion” should AUTOMATICALLY get religious tax exemption just because the group of crackpots SAY they are a religion? Because that’s the alternative to having “federal bureaucrats decide what is a valid religion”.
And BTW, it’s an absolute travesty that Scientology received tax exemption: the only reason they got it was because thousands of members sued hundreds of IRS employees personally and the IRS Commissioner did a deal with the “church” that if they were granted tax status, the “church” would have all of their members drop the thousands of lawsuits. Naturally, it was papa Bush that caved, you know, the same papa Bush who just announced he voted for Hillary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_status_of_Scientology_in_the_United_States
15% pure, flat corporate/business/self-employment tax.
No deductions, loopholes, credits, or anything.
Everybody pays the same rate.
Tax revenues would skyrocket.
$200-$400 billion wasted on tax compliance and on attorneys would vanish.
I believe it would be a huge mistake for the President to weigh in on this matter in any way, but I wholeheartedly support the idea of revoking the Church of Scientology’s tax exempt status.
I have experience with that organization, and know for a fact that it’s a despicable, mind controlling cult, that robs its members of their souls, their families, their dreams, their money, and their lives.
Why should any political organization have tax exempt status?
Scientology is a total fraud. it only started calling itself a “religion” (which it isn’t) to gain that tax-exempt status. The whole fantasy was concocted by third-rate science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. It’s all about money.
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