by jwleaks 41 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
When they say "Commonwealth" they don't mean the whole Commonwealth, do they? That would be brilliant! Or is "Commonwealth" a term for all states/Australia?
The formal name for Australia is the “Commonwealth of Australia”. Depending on context, “Commonwealth” usually means just the Australian federal government, not state governments.
Sorry, I'm not much versed with Australian law and economy. Losing charitable status vs. joining national redress scheme Which one is more financially damaging?
I was actually listening to some speeches in Parliament about the matter. (The Government and Opposition are very much in lock step on this issue, by the way.) One of the Ministers stated the average payout per victim so far under the national redress scheme is just over A$80,000. From memory, there were about 1600 jw victims, so the potential liability to the Borg would be around A$128,000,000.
Losing charitable status would mean the Borg would have to pay income tax. From listening in to zoom meetings, our congregation has to pay $7.20 per publisher per month for the Worldwide Pedophile Protection Racket Preaching Work fund. The Borg would probably have to pay 30% tax on that income, less deductions. 0.3 x 7.2 x 12 x 60,000 = $A1.6 million per annum. In addition, the Borg and it’s congregations hold a significant amount of real estate, and may find itself liable for local government rates, without concession or deduction. These are significant amounts, probably bigger than income tax in total. There would probably be a few other taxes that they would be liable for.
SBF first said:
Yes It’s puzzling why Watchtower didn’t ultimately join the compensation scheme to avoid sanction and reputation damage.
Yes, it seems puzzling. SBF then offered this reason why they won't join up:
Unless they simply can’t afford it. If not in this particular case in Australia, then as a general principle Watchtower has determined that they just don’t have the funds to compensate victims of abuse without effectively closing down the organisation in the process. So dragging heels, hunkering down, and accepting sanctions are their only options for attempting to keep the organisation afloat.
Surely financial reasons are often in play behind their many secretive decisions, but I have to wonder if perhaps more is involved here.
For example, would joining up with the redress scheme open them up to revealing their super-secret records to government authorities? If so, just like their not wanting to pay taxes in the USA back in the 1990s because that would have opened them up to government audits, is a similar principle at play here?
It's worth considering.
I would love to see Watchtower lose their charity status here in the US of A. Just think of the millions they would have to pay in taxes. It would be a site to see!
In addition to not wanting the financial obligations, as well as not wanting to acknowledge any problem with their policies, the GB also might think that publicly joining such a scheme (that primarily involves other religious organisations) may be perceived as a form of ‘interfaith’.
I suspect that it won’t be specifically covered on their website because that is not easily achieved without drawing attention to their mishandling of abuse cases. But the site might generically bundle Australia in among ‘lands’ where JWs face ‘persecution’.
When it comes to money they will find a way around it. Move Aussie operations to NZ maybe and donations to the US. Who knows?
If the charitable status is withdrawn, I wonder how it would affect payments made to CO's, or anyone that receives stipends from the org.
Will they have to pay bethelites minimum wages?
road to nowhere - "It will be painted as persecution over 'loving' biblical standards..."
Paying back Caesar's things to Caesar is persecution?
SBF - "...It’s puzzling why Watchtower didn’t ultimately join the compensation scheme to avoid sanction and reputation damage..."
Pride is a significant factor...
...but more importantly, voluntarily joining would be tantamount to publicly admitting that critics' accusations were right all along, the problem existed in the first place, and that not only were the Org's vaunted "Biblical" policies unable to properly address the problem, but actually made it worse...
...all of which would too severely undermine the Org's claim of "God's Exclusive Earthly Organization" in the eyes of the rank-and-file.
And that is completely unacceptable.
Without that carrot/stick combo, there's virtually no incentive left to even be a JW.
Not to mention that at this point, they don't give a rat's ass about their public reputation...
...as far as they're concerned, they're in the Endgame Last Days now, anyway (on a fundamental level, they're all True Believers), so anything "Satan's World" does to them can't help but ensure/accelerate their salvation.
Seriously.
They are backed in a corner on this one. Damned if you do or don’t.
I think they were hoping if they ignored the problem it would go away. It didn’t.
Religion tax exemption is bullshit anyway. They should have to pay like everyone else and appeal to their sky daddy to send them some more money since he owns all the gold and silver but somehow is always broke and has to beg the congregation for more money.
