Wow, these guys can twist anything into a reason to pat themselves on the back. By leaving out a lot of relevant information, they make it seem like they are doing such a wonderful service to the Clearwater community. First, the LOSS of revenue for the City of Clearwater is HUGE. If all the dozens of properties scientology owns were taxable, the amount of revenue generated would be at least 10 times the 3 million. Maybe 20 times. Or even more. This is the SHORTFALL that the city does NOT receive. Tens of millions annually. But the city DOES provide the fire and police departments, … [Read more...]
Auditing Scientology: Reexamining Tax Exemption Eligibility
One of our commenters (ISNOINews) forward me a link to a wonderful piece by Taylor Holley, a Juris Doctorate candidate at Texas Tech University Law School written for the Law Review. It is titled Auditing Scientology: Reexamining the Church's 501(c)3 Tax Exemption Eligibility. If you click on the link above, you can download the full paper -- it is 27 pages long and summarizes all the facts and legal arguments as to why scientology should NOT enjoy tax exempt status. Below I include her abstract summarizing the paper: Abstract The Church of Scientology is one of the most discussed … [Read more...]
The Economic Impact of Scientology on Clearwater
Scientology spews out paid ads proclaiming their wondrous contributions to society, most especially to Clearwater. I see these things on Twitter and when I respond they delete my responses. So, in keeping with the time-honored solution of “doing what Ron says,” I am putting my response on my own channel of communication where it cannot be altered (or deleted). Their tweet above makes the bold claim that scientology paid $3.1 million in property and tourist taxes in 2018. And that they "generate $1 billion impact into the local economy." As for the first claim -- this may well be cor … [Read more...]