alt_religion_scientology/FACTNetARS19980123

From: FACTNet International < XXX-Obsolete.email.Deleted-XXX >
Subject: Did the cult Scientology bludgeon the IRS into a billion dollar tax revenue give-away?
Date: 1998/01/23
Message-ID: <34C9735D.3DDD@rmi.net>#1/1
Reply-To: < XXX-Obsolete.email.Deleted-XXX >
Newsgroups: alt.religion.broadcast,alt.religion.christianity,alt.religion.scientology,alt.religion.scientology.xenu,alt.religion.scientology.squik.squik

A secret, unprecedented tax deal the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made
with the Church of Scientology in 1993 was recently exposed by the Wall
Street Journal and New York Times. The questionable means by which
Scientology obtained this secret deal has captured the interest of tens
of millions of U.S. taxpayers, major worldwide corporations with U.S.
tax liabilities, and diverse special interest groups with concerns
ranging from taxation to religion to separation of church and state.

The New York Times reported that in 1993 David Miscavige, Scientology's
leader, told a gathering of Scientologists that Scientology's U.S. tax
bill could have been as much as one billion dollars. But according to
the terms of the secret IRS deal, Scientology did not have to pay one
billion dollars, and that was just the beginning of Scientology's tax
windfall.

What Scientology got in its secret IRS deal
The IRS agreed to: 1) dismiss tax penalties and liens against
Scientology; 2) grant tax-exempt status to 114 Scientology-related
entities; 3) drop its tax audits of the mother church and 12 other
Scientology organizations; 4) grant Scientology a special religious
education tax deduction for its members (so Scientologists can deduct
tens -- sometimes hundreds -- of thousands of dollars per year for their
private religious education, a deduction which appears not to be
available to Catholics, Protestants, or Jews sending their children to
private religious schools); 5) cancel payroll taxes and penalties it had
assessed against church entities and officials; 6) not review the
exemption applications filed by the Church of Scientology and its
affiliates for compliance with non-profit IRC 501(c)(3) tax regulations;
7) drop its litigation in pursuit of church records.

What the IRS and U.S. taxpayers got in return
Scientology agreed to: 1) drop the 2,200 lawsuits it had brought against
the IRS and IRS officials, and to stop helping church members in filing
similar lawsuits; and 2) pay the IRS a token $12.5 million for all its
tax bills, about 1% of the estimated one billion dollar tax bill (Those
angered by this secret deal are loudly asking if it is legal); 3) set up
an internal tax compliance mechanism, which has now issued policies
barring all Scientologists from religious salvation if they don't comply
with IRS tax regulations (This marks an intrusion by government tax
enforcement into religious practices that has alarmed groups supporting
the separation of church and state).

After repeatedly and justifiably denying ScientologyÂ’s tax-exempt
status, the IRS suddenly reversed its position in 1993 with this secret
settlement which granted Scientology religious status and canceled most
of the organizationÂ’s huge tax debt. As outrageously unfair as this
secret deal appears, the means by which Scientology obtained it may be
even worse -- from filing 2,200 lawsuits against the IRS, to sending
private investigators to pry into the personal lives of IRS employees,
to hiring an IRS-insider.

"The crime committed by these defendants is of a breadth and scope
previously unheard of. No building, office, desk, or file was safe from
their snooping and prying. No individual or organization was free from
their despicable conspiratorial minds. The tools of their trade were
miniature transmitters, lock picks, secret codes, forged credentials and
any other device they found necessary to carry out their conspiratorial
schemes."

A full report on the strange details surrounding the way the IRS granted
Scientology tax-exempt status is available at
.

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