by metatron 13 Replies latest jw friends
I do not see any move from the government to tax public bodies. (Source please, Manfred at channelc).
I do not see any reluctance on the Society's side to roll out the new status. Actually they have already accepted the status in Berlin as you can see from the thread I linked to and have already applied in another state of Germany.
The German Channel C poster said:
Germany is a Federal Republic, consisting of 13 federal states, Berlin is one of them. In Berlin, and only in Berlin, the WTS is officially recognized as a public corporation. This has been a hard and a long fight; but they won.
Now the WTS had to make submissions with all the other 12 states to become recognized in these states as well. Usually this goes without saying and should not cause any problems.
Although a rumour, my (excellent) sources say that the WTS is in a predicament now. Meanwhile the society is not sure if they really want to be legally recognized as a public corporation because the government plans to draw taxes from corporations which could be very expensive for the society. Therefore they are discussing if they shouldn’t prefer to remain a registered association.
When it comes down to money . .
Another poster asked:
This is probably a dumb question:
Why do they want to be recognized as a public corporation? Is that somehow more "Christian"?
Or was that saving them from taxes previously?
The same German poster responded:
At first we were told that nobody could call us a cult if the society was legally recognized as public corporation. This was certainly not true, as they spoke of the “Religious Organization of JW” many years before they were recognized. Then they admitted (at least to the body of elders) that it is mainly about taxes. Of course, as a public organisation, they were also allowed to draw taxes from their members (as the Catholic Church does here in Germany), but I really do not believe that they intend to this.
Matter of fact seems to be that the society is afraid to pay taxes like the French branch had to do. We are talking about many millions (40?) of Euros, MR.
There are no indication of where the German poster gets his info from.
Blondie
The MDR (Middle German Broadcast) quoted JW attorney Gajus Glockentin August 27th that by the end of the year JW should be registered in all parts of Germany. Currently, the land of Thueringen is examining giving JW the public body status. http://f25.parsimony.net/forum63052/messages/19002.htm
The German Channel C poster said:
Germany is a Federal Republic, consisting of 13 federal states, Berlin is one of them. In Berlin, and only in Berlin, the WTS is officially recognized as a public corporation. This has been a hard and a long fight; but they won.Just to keep the record straight: Germany consists of 16 federal states.Now the WTS had to make submissions with all the other 12 states to become recognized in these states as well. Usually this goes without saying and should not cause any problems.
