I think what problemaddict 2 said is true: There may not be a smoking gun here. But the words from jean-luc picard above are very very true - and can perhaps be summed up as:
overheads
I think people severely underestimate the cost of overheads - particulary when it's 'voluntary' because people equate that with 'free' but that's far far from the truth.
WT is a huge unwieldy organisation with so many people on it's effective 'payroll'. It all adds up - yes, even possible that more money is going out then coming in even
In economic terms - it's not the building that costs the money - it's the staffing of the building that costs, big time.
Even volunteers need food, shelter, warmth, monthly allowance and so forth - week-in week-out.
There's 26,011 Bethelites - at US$500-per-month - that's US$150million-a-year
Plus remember all the 'small' allowances WT pays out to special pioneers, missionaries, and so forth, it all adds up.
And the regular, predictable, literature income stream is drying up - that's why WT is goading congregations to make monthly congregational resolutions to donate directly to WT - they are trying to get back that regular, predictable, income stream that's missing. They realise they can't rely on the unpredictability of individual rank and file members donating to the WWW themselves each month! It doesn't work!
I think this also explains the fairly sudden, and ruthless, cutting back and downsizing on people, while still doing some major building works in upstate New York and UK's Essex.
BTW I thought this was interesting background, even though it's a bit old:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-much-your-company-pays-to-rent-office-space-2015-05-27
