ADDITIONAL NOTES:

In 1989, The U.S. Supreme Court prohibited the very thing that the secret IRS agreement later allowed.

"...after years of Scientology's legal wrangling with the IRS, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in 1989 (Hernandez v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue) that the payments Scientology collected for training and auditing sessions were not tax deductible and could not be classified as charitable contributions. Undeterred, Scientologists responded with more than 2,000 individual lawsuits against the IRS." (from "Building Scientopolis". By Jody Veenker. 9/04/2000)

The IRS disregarded the Supreme Court by allowing Scientologists to deduct their payments for Scientology services/materials as charitable donations.


SCIENTOLOGY POLICY ENCOURAGES INTERFERENCE IN THE AFFAIRS OF GOVERNMENT AND REGULATORY INSTITUTIONS

"Somebody some day will say 'this is illegal'. By then be sure the orgs [Scientology organizations] say what is legal or not."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, "LRH Relationship to Orgs", 4 January 1966

"The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."
- L. Ron Hubbard, A Manual on the Dissemination of Material, 1955

"You want to know what happens when you clear everybody in that neighbourhood, the only thing that [Scientology] center can become used for is a political center. Because by the time you've done all this, you are the government..."
- L. Ron Hubbard , "Future Org Trends," 9 January 1962


TRANSCRIPT:

Dear American taxpayers,

You may be surprised to learn that in America, one group enjoys a tax-exemption and special privileges from the IRS, privileges that go beyond those afforded to any other taxpayer.

Also surprising is the fact that for over 25 years, the IRS fought against this group in the courts, arguing that it did not qualify for any tax-exemption due to "the commercial character" of much of the groups operations, and its "virtually incomprehensible financial procedures".

In 1991, an unusual meeting was held between the leader of the group (David Miscavige) and the IRS Commissioner (Fred T. Goldberg Jr.).
A complete reversal of the IRS' position came into effect in October 1993.

A secret deal now provides this group with rights that exceed those of the average citizen.

This group and its associated corporations are known by various names, including:
Church of Scientology International
Church of Spiritual Technology
Religious Technology Center

Front Groups include:
Applied Scholastics
Narconon
Criminon
Citizen's Commission on Human Rights

Scientologists are able to claim tax-deductions of a nature that is prohibited for members of any other group.

According to The New York Times:
* The exemption followed a series of unusual internal IRS actions that came after an extraordinary campaign orchestrated by Scientology against the agency and people who work there.
* Scientology's lawyers hired private investigators to dig into the private lives of IRS officials and to conduct surveillance operations to uncover potential vulnerabilities, according to interviews and documents.
*One investigator said he had...taken documents from an IRS conference and sent them to church officials and created a phony news bureau in Washington to gather information on church critics. The church also financed an organization of IRS whistle-blowers that attacked the agency publicly.
* The decision to negotiate with the church came after Fred T. Goldberg Jr., the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service at the time, had an unusual meeting with Miscavige in 1991. Scientology's own version of what occurred offers a remarkable account of how the church leader walked into IRS headquarters without an appointment and got in to see Goldberg, the nation's top tax official. Miscavige offered to call a halt to Scientology's suits against the IRS in exchange for tax exemptions.
* After that meeting, Goldberg created a special committee to negotiate a settlement with Scientology outside normal agency procedures. IRS tax analysts were ordered to ignore the substantive issues in reviewing the decision, according to IRS memorandums and court files.
* The IRS refused to disclose any terms of the agreement, including whether the church was required to pay back taxes... the position is in stark contrast to the agency's handling of some other church organizations.


The U.S. Constitution upholds the principle of the separation of Church and State. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment ensures Government policy remains neutral towards religious groups. According to the Constitution, one religious group should not receive special treatment by the U.S. Government.


On February 4, 2008, before three judges of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Jeffrey Zuckerman represented Michael and Marla Sklar, who were refused tax-deductions for the religious component of their children's education. Their deduction was refused because they are not Scientologists.

Judge Kim Wardlaw summarized the situation:

"The view of the IRS is that it can unconstitutionally violate the Constitution by establishing religion, by treating one religion more favorably than other religions in terms of what it allows as deductions, and there can never be any judicial review of that?"

Ellen Delsole, a Justice Department lawyer representing the IRS, suggested the IRS should be allowed to violate the Constitution by "giving, conceding something to one person, one group, in exchange for a payment."

Judge Wardlaw countered:
"You are saying now that it's okay as long as the IRS gets some money?"

"This does intrude into the Establishment Clause. The whole point is Government neutrality towards religion, and that's exactly what the IRS is not doing here"


The affidavit of Lawrence H. Brennan, filed on May 6, 2008 reveals that Scientology corporations deliberately worked to create the appearance of a religious group in order to gain a tax-exemption and hide its assets from outsiders.

"Religious cloaking was intentionally used to help organized scientology make money and to avoid compliance with a myriad of laws that would otherwise apply if it was not so considered. The use of scholars to say scientology was a religion or organized
scientology was a religious organization was carefully planned and executed to forward the cover of the religious cloaking.

The entire corporate reorganization of 1981 on was to hide assets from litigants/governments and to protect those secretly running organized scientology from legal liability.

...The true danger lurking behind those corporate veils and hidden behind religious cloaking is organized scientology’s intention to control the legal systems and educational systems of the world, to rid the world of its enemies and apply its brutal ethics policies to everyone. That is what is in store for the world should the policies of organized scientology be applied throughout the world. It has long been the intention of organized scientology to do the above as it uses its front groups like Narconon, Applied Scholastics, the Way to Happiness Foundation etc. to get inroads into society for organized scientology."

If you feel that Scientology's secret deal with the IRS is an injustice to American taxpayers, please write to your Congressman, and inform others about this unacceptable situation.

Feel free to download the WMV video file (link is on the right side of this page next to the comments) and reupload elsewhere.


REFERENCES:

"Scientology's Puzzling Journey From Tax Rebel to Tax Exempt". By Douglas Frantz. The New York Times. March 9, 1997
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E7DE1639F93AA35750C0A961958260

"Judges Press IRS on Church Tax Break." By Josh Gerstein. The New York Sun. February 8, 2008.
nysun.com/national/judges-press-irs-on-church-tax-break/70957/

Pasadena Courtroom 2 Audio (06-72961). Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. February 4, 2008.
Case Number 06-72961 accessible at: ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/media.nsf/Media%20Search?OpenForm&Seq=2

"Declaration of Lawrence H. Brennan." Lawrence H. Brennan. Filed May 6, 2008, at Merrimack County, New Hampshire.
Text avalable at: crackpotpress.com/crackpot/images/stories/pdf/crs.pdf
Authenticity confirmed in radio interview, audio accessible at: glosslip.com/2008/05/11/glosslip-radio-larry-brennan-former-scientologist-live-tonight-at-930-1100-pm-edt-may-11/

"Scientology Faces Criminal Charges" By Constant Brand. The Associated Press (AP). Brussels, Belgium. September 4, 2007.
a.abcnews.com/International/wireStory?id=3555811

Building Scientopolis September 4, 2000, Jody Veenker, Christianity Today
christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/september4/7.90.html

Scientology: Religion or racket? September 1, 2003, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Marburg Journal of Religion
web.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/beit.html