careful that sounds like a very plausible explanation why Watchtower dropped charges - in order to avoid tax, because collecting tax would open them up to external scrutiny. I suppose that means they felt they had things they’d rather avoid having to justify or explain. That seems likely because an organisation so accustomed to secrecy may become complacent and become embroiled in dubious practices of various sorts. For instance external scrutiny may reveal that certain individuals or companies benefit financially from their relationship with Watchtower in ways that may appear unfair or borderline corrupt. Or other aspects of their operations they’d rather keep hidden I can’t even imagine, may be involved.
Even so, if their primary motive was to avoid the scrutiny that paying taxes would invite, I still think it is fair to say that Watchtower probably didn’t expect, and were unpleasantly surprised by the extent to which income from literature fell after they stopped charging. This is demonstrated by the tone of disappointment in the letter of 1990/1 about the fall in donations, and by the progressive cuts from the mid 1990s. Because for the first five years or so Watchtower continued publishing and expanding as before. It was as if they didn’t expect the change to result in a drop in income and they expected to carry on as before. It was around 1996 when cuts began, with one of the first signals being the switch from hardcover to paperback books. So presumably they coasted for five years or so on the basis of their accumulated funds. Then they sllowly began to tighten their belts in the late 1990s, until cutbacks reached a frenzy in the late 2010s.
I totally agree that stopping recording and collecting hours would be a hugely significant change, striking at the heart of JW culture, and it would be a much bigger than dropping the book study or the district overseer was.
And I agree there is a good possibility that the OP may have half a story correct, or the rumour has been slightly distorted at some stage, such that hours may be collected differently rather than abandoned altogether. In fact we can probably agree this is the most likely explanation, if there is substance to the rumour to begin with.
And yet, and yet. It may not be likely, but it does seem just about possible that the OP may be correct, and this accurately foretells the end for JWs recording hours altogether. It would be such a tremendous and course changing event in the history of JWs that it is just too tempting to avoid contemplating what the implications would be.
Plus as I mentioned earlier, there does seem to be good internal logic that might prompt a change to stop collecting hours. If the roots and justification for collecting hours traditionally invoked the need for the organisation to appraise and plan their print publishing operations worldwide, then the question arrises why is it necessary to keep collecting this information when print publications are increasingly marginal to their activity? We know that the data on preaching is used to regulate the boundary of the community and to establish status within it, but rarely if ever is this stated so bluntly as a goal in Watchtower literature. So it is just about possible, if admittedly unlikely, that Watchtower will recognise that dwindling print activity logically indicates that collecting preaching data is no longer necessary or justified.
Another occasional justification that has been offered by Watchtower for collecting the data is that it encourages the brothers to be able to see the growth figures in their own country and others. This would not be possible, Watchtower has argued, unless everyone plays their part and reports their preaching activity. However as numbers start to decline this is unlikely to be a source of encouragement much longer.
So I agree that stopping collecting hours is unlikely, yet if would be such a significant change, not to mention opportunity for all sorts of reforms in how JWs operate and JW culture generally.