Costs of Circuit Assembley (page 2)

Mad Sweeney

I would be intrigued to know if there is any evidence of assembly halls being used as a scam.

What kind of evidence are you looking for? There have been several posters who used to work in accounts explaining the scam. The "expenses" are NOT expenses. The Borg estimates how many people are going to attend (say 2000) and 'estimates expenses' on a per-attendee basis (say, $5 per attendee per day).

That's $20,000 for a 2-day assembly. Actual expenses *might* be 10% of that on the high end. (remember, there are no salaries, no taxes, no mortgage - only water and electricity).

They're vacant a couple weekends a year, so say $20K x 50 weekends and you've got a million dollars a year gross and maybe $900K net.

There is no way this is NOT a scam.

That said, there is no evidence in writing that any known apostate has made available to the public. It is all word of mouth stuff. But sitting there at the assembly and listening to the "accounts report" it should be obvious what they're doing. There is just NO WAY their costs are as high as they claim. And like I said, there have been posters here who confirmed it with their own personal eyewitness accounts.

DesirousOfChange

The above link is for the Surrey Assembly Hall.

Perhaps someone with financial background could have a look at them.

Pretty simple. They have 294,000 GBP in receipts/contributions. They spend 148,000 GBP in expenses/utilties etc. 50% of the cash is free & clear "profit". Thus they are assessing DOUBLE the amount of actual expenses for the publishers to use the facility.

In prior year they showed 63,000 GPB "on loan" to WTS, current year that increased to 200,000 GBP "on loan" to WTS.

DOC

diamondiiz

I thought the same thing when I had to go to one of these. Their expenses would be, Electricity, water, garbage removal, phone and gas. In the summer they may pay more for electricity for air conditioning and in winter heating would affect them. How much water can two day assembly use? There is no one taking shower or doing laundry. Electricity - most bulbs are fluorescent. If you pay your monthly bills you know that these bills aren't that huge so it just doesn't make any sense. It's been a while but $3k to$5k a day is just outrageous. If you got married recently and rented a hall for the day, how much did you pay? Even if it was a third the size of the assembly hall the cost was nowhere near what wts charges per weekend use and they make money and pay taxes on top of it all.

I use to go to a KH center where we had 5 khs and at least 10 congregations. The walls opened up and the assembly there held about 800-1000 people. The building was paid off and utilities shared amongst all the congregations - and one day assembly bill was 3-5k!!!!! (I don't remember exactly how much)

Someone is making money.

cedars

Mad Sweeney - what I meant was, I would love to be able to see some evidence because I already suspected there was a scam, and being relatively new to this community, perhaps there might be someone who would come forward?

That said, there is no evidence in writing that any known apostate has made available to the public. It is all word of mouth stuff.

That's a shame, because like you said, it's fairly obvious that something untoward is going on when you hear the accounts report being read out, but without something printed in black and white it's very difficult to build a case and expose everything on sites like jwfacts.com (in the same way as you can with, say, the UN/NGO thing). What I'm saying is - we need some leaks!

Cedars

diamondiiz

Here's a tax return from Calgary's circuit 1A. (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/haip/srch/t3010form21-eng.action?b=119288918RR1004&e=2010-08-31&n=ALBERTA+CIRCUIT+1-A+OF+JEHOVAH%27S+WITNESSES&r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cra-arc.gc.ca%3A80%2Febci%2Fhaip%2Fsrch%2Fadvancedsearchresult-eng.action%3Fn%3Djehovah%26amp%3Bb%3D%26amp%3Bq%3D%26amp%3Bs%3Dregistered%26amp%3Bd%3D%26amp%3Be%3D%2B%26amp%3Bc%3Dcalgary%26amp%3Bv%3D%2B%26amp%3Bo%3D%26amp%3Bz%3D%26amp%3Bg%3D%2B%26amp%3Bt%3D%2B%26amp%3By%3D%2B%26amp%3Bp%3D1

D1 Was the financial information reported below prepared on an accrual or cash basis?	4020	CASH
D2 Summary of financial position: Using the charity's own financial statements, provide the following:
Does the charity own land and/or buildings?	4050	No
Total assets (including land and buildings)	4200	$ 2,176
Total liabilities	4350
Did the charity borrow from, loan to, or invest assets with any non-arm's length parties?	4400	No
D3 Revenue:
Did the charity issue tax receipts for donations?	4490	Yes
If yes, what is the total eligible amount of all donations for which the charity issued tax receipts (except enduring property).	4500	$ 7,615
Total amount received from other charities (excluding specified gifts and enduring property)	4510
What is the total amount for all other donations received for which a tax receipt was not issued by the charity? (excluding amounts at lines 4575 and 4630)	4530	$ 7,304
Did the charity receive any revenue from any level of Canadian government?	4565	No
If yes, total amount received	4570
Total non tax-receipted amounts from all sources outside Canada (government and non-government)	4575
Total non tax-receipted amounts from fundraising	4630
Total revenue from sale of goods and services (except to any level of Canadian government)	4640
Other amounts not already included in the amounts above	4650
Total revenue (Add lines 4500 through 4650)	4700	$ 14,919
D4 Expenditures:
What was the charity's total expenditure on professional and consulting fees?	4860
What was the charity's total expenditure on travel and vehicles?	4810	$ 1,251
All other expenditures not already included in the amounts above	4920	$ 11,909
Total expenditures (excluding gifts to qualified donees) (Add lines 4860+4810+4920).	4950	$ 13,160
Of the total amount at line 4950:
a) How much did the charity spend on charitable programs?	5000	$ 13,028
b) How much did the charity spend on management and administration?	5010	$ 132
Total amount of gifts (excluding specified gifts) made to all qualified donees.	5050	$ 1,200
Total amount of specified gifts made to qualified donees.	5070
Total expenditures (Add lines 4950 and 5050 + 5070)	5100	$ 14,360

This is the KH complex I mentioned in the above post. Since this is a yearly return, I assume there are 3 days worth of assemblies at this place for this circuit (1 x 1day = 1 x 2day)

There is no mortgage on the building.

According to the above filing, their revenue was $14,919 and they donated $1,200 to WTS and they had $11,909 in expenses....

This particular charity's address is a private home, I'm assuming of an elder, which I don't understand why that would be.

Can someone explain this?

I checked my old KH in Calgary where there were 4 congregations that met. Each congregation is registered under a separate charity but they all meet in one building while the charities' addresses are private homes except for one which has the KH address. Is this because one address can only have one charity registered by law?????

Quirky1

The parking attendants don't get paid enough...

Mad Sweeney

I like that in some countries religions have to report income. Wish they had to in the USA.

Balaamsass

Total scam and lie tp the publishers. This actual expenses used to be discussed at the Circuit elders meeting. Weird donations to the WTBTS are added as "expenses" and the sheeple are read that number. When I simply asked for a clarification of some strange numbers I was treated as an apostate in the open meeting. How dare I question the accounts!!!

The cost to use our Assembly hall is double the cost to rent the nicest public convention center IN TOWN. Instead struggling families and elderly DRIVE HOURS to pay double on a building that was paid for YEARS AGO. The poor publishers are shorn of their $$ and time, and LIED to.

dropoffyourkeylee

Question:

Is is possible that some of these properties have second mortgages, and the Society is having to make payments?

I don't know one way or the other, just asking

designs

drop-

If they do have a mortgage the Rank and File are kept in the dark about it. By the way if anyone wants to get a really terse letter from the Society drop a letter in the Assembly contribution box questioning their accounting and guilt trip talk ( I did).

Costs of Circuit Assembley

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