This is why he’s reluctant to release his taxes. It won’t look good when combined with the ads the left will slip into the media about Mormons.
Exactly.
The Mormon church has become the wealthiest church per capita in America. It does not disclose its finances, but attempts have been made to estimate church revenue and assets.
In 1997, Time magazine estimated church assets totaled "a minimum of $30 billion." Richard and Joan K. Ostling in their 1999 book Mormon America put a "conservative" estimate of total assets at $25 to $30 billion, noting that it was likely "well beyond that." Though the church criticized Time's calculations as excessive, according to the Ostlings, it "did not provide even the vaguest hints as to what was wrong and what the truth might be."
The Mormon church's financial growth has been fueled by "sacred taxation" -- tithing. To be of good standing, all Mormons must tithe, or give 10 percent of their gross income to the church. The Ostlings' research concluded that annual tithing revenue, as of the mid-1990s, was likely between $4.25 and $5.3 billion.
Not all Mormons tithe, but tithing is a requirement of keeping a temple recommend allowing Mormons to enter the temple, and the percentage of members who pay tithing is very high, probably well over 60 percent.
The church also manages a large amount of commercial investments, mostly through its Deseret Management Corporation. The Ostlings estimate revenue from those enterprises at $600 million annually and describe the holdings:
"Their enterprises range from a $16 billion insurance company to perhaps $6 billion in stock and bonds, if not more. There's a $172 million chain of radio stations (seventh-largest in the country). The church's more than 150 farms and ranches, including America's largest cattle ranch, make it one of the largest landowners in the nation. The farms and ranches encompass somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 million acres, roughly equal to the size of the state of Delaware."
The church's religious buildings and property, while included in the asset estimates, are considered expenses and not sources of revenue. The church also channels significant funds into humanitarian work; it claims annual donations in the tens of millions of dollars and activities in 147 countries.