Posts by skeeter1

206

Took my son (5 yrs) shooting for his first time.

by dazed but not confused in

i went with my neighbor to an outdoor shooting range in the pawnee national grasslands in colorado.

its about 2 hours northeast of denver.

it was awesome.

the ancestors used to refer to this type weather as the easter snap.. it's cold and rainy.. my teenage granddaughter is sullen and hostile.. my little jw daughter is cool and aloof.. i am so happy for this forum.. thanks, people.. sylvia.

skeeter1

When I lived in Georgia, there was a song to describe it. Brook Benton. "Rainy Night in Georgia." The lyric, "Lord, I feel like it's raining all over this world." Nothing worse than the Southern rains.

It's super sunny here in South Florida, so fly further south Ms. Snowbird!

324

Is this new donation arrangement for real?

by nugget in

just read a post on jwsurvey about the new donation arrangement.

congregations are to pledge a monthly amount to be sent to the society to fund the building of assembly halls and kingdom halls.

congregations who already have a loan from the society will no longer have to pay back the loan but the amount pledged should not be less than the current monthly repayments to the society.

skeeter1

I want to say first, that I have not alot of research on this issue. But, I have a hunch that changing the Kingdom Hall loan agreement to a charitable contribution disguise is an attempt to get out of taxes. For those of you that remember, taxes are also the reason that the Watchtower went to a strict donation for books and magazine materials. That, was done for sales taxes after California audited another church imposing back sales taxes for all non-Bible publications that were sold in that State.

From what I can guess, the mother corporation is a 501(c)(3) corporation. The IRS can break a 501(c)(3), turning it into a private foundation. This is when investment income really comes into play. Loan interest would be investment income for the Watchtower. Private Foundation status is probably the Watchtower's worst nightmare. Private foundations are taxed on their interest income, and are watched by the IRS more than ever. If the Watchtower can try to make steps now to turn the interest arrangement into a donation arrangement, then they are covering their arses. There are many, many laws and traps to tax and penalize (i.e. "Excise tax") private foundations from being a quasi-investment house.

**************************** A handful of the IRS taxes on Public Foundations****************

http://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/Tax%20Exempt%20and%20Charitable%20Organizations.pdf

"A public charity that fails to maintain such status will be reclassified as a private foundation. Private foundations are subject to certain restrictions on their operations, embodied in a series of excise taxes described in Section 4940-4945 of the Code. Violations of these provisions may subject the foundations and, in some cases, their foundation managers to excise taxes.

• Section 4940: Imposes an annual excise tax of 2% on the net investment income (including interest, dividends, rents, royalties, and capital gain net income) of private foundations. A private foundation may be able to reduce this tax to 1% by increasing its annual distributions for charitable purposes."

• Section 4942 - Mandatory Distributions: A private foundation is required to make annual “qualifying distributions” in an amount equal to 5% of its net investment assets. Qualifying distributions generally include grants to public charities and direct expenditures for charitable purposes, including administrative expenses associated with the conduct of the foundation’s charitable activities and for the acquisition of assets that will be used for charitable purposes. Grants to most “Type III supporting organizations” and “Type I” and “Type II supporting organizations” in which disqualified persons with respect to the foundation have direct or indirect control are not qualifying distributions. The amount that a foundation must distribute is calculated annually; however, the foundation has two years (the year for which the distributable amount is calculated and the subsequent year) in which to make qualifying distributions of that amount. A foundation may carry forward excess qualifying distributions to reduce the distributable amounts over the next five years.

Failure to comply with the distribution requirement results in an initial penalty tax of 30% of the foundation’s undistributed income (the amount which should have been, but was not, paid out). A foundation has 90 days after notification of its failure to meet the distribution requirement to correct the problem by making additional qualifying distributions. If the foundation does not make the corrective qualifying distributions in a timely manner, Section 4942 imposes an additional tax of 100% of the amount remaining undistributed. Penalties may also be imposed on foundation managers who knowingly approve violations of the applicable requirement.

• Section 4943 - Excess Business Holdings: A private foundation is prohibited from owning more than specified equity interests in business enterprises, including corporations, partnerships, estates or trusts. While the rules are fairly complex, a private foundation, together with all disqualified persons, generally may not hold more than 20% ownership in a business enterprise. The limit increases to 35% if effective control of the business is in the hands of one or more persons who are not disqualified persons. These rules do not apply if the foundation owns less than 2% of a business, or if the business engages in activities that are substantially related to the foundation’s charitable purposes.

If a foundation acquires business holdings other than by purchase (i.e., by gift or bequest), and the additional holdings would result in excess holdings, the foundation effectively has five years to reduce those holdings to permissible levels. The IRS can allow an additional five-year period for the disposition of excess business holdings in the case of an “unusually” large gift or bequest.

The initial tax imposed on a foundation with excess business holdings is 10% of the value of such holdings during the taxable year. The amount of the excess holdings is determined as of the day during the tax year when the foundation’s excess holdings in a business enterprise were the greatest. If the foundation fails to divest itself of the excess holdings within a certain period of time, there is an additional tax of 200% of their value. Penalties may also be imposed on foundation managers who knowingly approve violations of the applicable requirement.

• Section 4944 - Jeopardy Investments: A private foundation is prohibited from making investments that jeopardize its ability to accomplish its exempt purposes. This prohibition is violated if it is determined that the foundation managers, in making an investment, failed to exercise ordinary business care and prudence, under the facts and circumstances prevailing at the time of making the investment, in providing for the long- and short-term financial needs of the foundation to carry out its exempt purposes. No category of investments is a per se violation of Section 4944, but certain types of investments will be closely scrutinized by the IRS (trading in securities on margin, trading in commodities futures, buying puts, calls and straddles, selling short, etc.). There are exceptions from Section 4944 for investments that are gratuitously transferred to a private foundation and for those that qualify as “program-related” (i.e., where the primary purpose is to achieve a charitable objective rather than to produce income).

An initial tax of 10% of the amount of the investment is levied on the foundation for any violation of Section 4944. In addition, a 5% tax (up to a maximum of $10,000) may be imposed on the foundation managers who knowingly fail to comply. A second-level tax of 25% may be imposed on the foundation (5% for the foundation manager – up to a maximum of $20,000) if the jeopardy situation is not corrected within a certain period.

**********

Now, even if the IRS does not reclassify the Watchtower to a Private Foundation, there is a small trap, of unrelated business income from a controlled corporation. THowever, I think the WTS can get out of this becuase of the exceptions for interest from property used by the controlled coropration (or expected to be used) in the charity's purpose.

Again, I strongly suspect that this is something tax related. IRS, France, Germany, . .. somewhere, somewhere taxes are driving this decision.

8

Anyone remember the old Beliefnet Poster - Apologist?

by TheListener in

several years ago on beliefnet there was a jw apologist named "apologist".

he was very well written and defended the dubs very well.

he had several debates with auld soul and others on beliefnet which were fun to read.. i recently found out that the poster "apologist" is no longer a witness and does not consider them to have the "truth".

skeeter1

We see this every now and again, don't we. I miss Auldsoul too.

7

My non-JW sister & her observations and updates from visiting JW family

by Faithful Witness in

my non-jw, never been interested in even tralking about it, always avoid the topic of jw issues, came for an overnight visit this weekend.

the kids all had a blast.

she updated me with a few observations:.

skeeter1

I don't know how to respond, other than to ask why do you need your parent's approval so much? They sound like typical JW freaks.

36

First post after a year or two of lurking on this site-Sorry for the length!

by Pattytheperfect1 in

not sure of the point of telling my story, but just got off the phone with my grandma and i am so angry, stressed and i don't know what else...i guess i just wanted to hear from someone other than my husband that i'm not crazy for my reaction to family interaction.. my condensed story gramatical errors and all :).

father was a born in jw, mother was a convert.

i was born the last of 3 siblings and shortly after my birth in 1981 my parents divorced.

skeeter1

Wow. What a story! You should work on a book, and through writing you may discover some peace. I'm so sorry for what you have been through.

Skeeter

130

Involved with a JW woman

by jonza in

okay so i'm dating a born-in jw woman, she's younger than me and has no kids.

i'm a christian man whos divorced with 2 kids.

we're in love and seriously want to be together.

skeeter1

Run away from this woman. A JW woman (and men) is like an onion. She has many layers, and will make your eyes cry alot. She's going to ruin your life, as long as she adheres, touts, or even clings to the Jehovah's Witness cult.

The last place you want your children is in a Kingdom Hall. They will brainwash your children to believing you are from Satan the Devil becuase you do not worship Jehovah but go to another church (all other churches are the devil's lair). They allow pedophiles to intermingle and be alone with children, and do not announce who the pedophile is. They will try to brainwash/guilt your children to give up all Holidays, voting, honor socieity's, college, etc. They will try to crowd their life with only JW children. Your wife is going to want to home-school them, to keep them away from worldly influences and to spend more & more time indoctrinating them and taking them out in the door-to-door service.

Go to a few meetings with this chick. I think you'll find that many meetings & conventions can be boiled down to: 1) The Governing Body speaks for Jehovah, 2) Sit down, obey, or else. The obey part is taught; 1) the world is going to end in Armegheddon very soon, 2) wordly desires are useless, and 3) only Jehovah's desires (getting new converts) is ok.

I have a JW blood sister who married a non-JW. Their biggest fights are over religion, and he learned to never bring up religion. Becuase, if he does, she gets all defensive. She goes to a meeting, then comes home and picks HUGE ASS fights with my brother-in-law for no reason at all (other than he's not a JW, so she blames him for holding her back from fully worshipping Jehovah in her home). I know her ex-boyfriend and he said that he dares not talk about religion with her becuase she gets so defensive. That is the mind control. My sister has been programmed to defeat any "anti-JW" talk. She does it by screaming and yelling all freaking night long. It wasn't like that when they first met . . . she was all peaches & cream back then. After the wedding is when her programming kicked in to loathe her non-believing husband.

Many JWs grew up in an abusive household and are victims. If she has any bit of abuse in her past, she is going to need to work through that with psychological help. Really, a shrink needs to un-mind control her. Stay clear of this onion. There are other hot tamales out there.

17

Told my JW friend it's a cult

by Xanthippe in

so i said i would write about the 2014 convention program that you guys kindly posted here, to the jw friend who contacted me out of the blue after over 20 years since we d'ad.

sorry if you find this repetitive if you have already read my story.

this friend does not know anything about how my family shun me and i thought it is relevant in the light of the convention symposium talk about putting family in second place.

skeeter1

Marking. I loved it.

34

Atlanta International Convention Hotels Not Being Filled Up!

by James Jackson in

this week our kh devoted the whole service meeting to the upcoming international convention in atlanta.

they read a 5 page letter from the branch which stated basically that we should feel priviledged to be invited to this convention.. however, many are not using the "recomended lodging list", "many hotels still have plenty of rooms available", "we must be loyal to this arrangement", (or the organization will not get their comp rooms)..

skeeter1

My JWs in Atlanta area commented that the WTS wanted everyone to stay in the hotesl. But, they were not staying in a hotel when they lived less than 20 miles from the Georgia Dome. They are taking S"Marta" straight to the Dome, and are only going for a day or two. They are carpooling to the Marta station, becuase they realize that those are also going to fill up.

59

what is the best line to say to a JW handing you an invite to the memorial

by nonjwspouse in

jw
friends

i have some ideas, but want more to choose from..

skeeter1

I will ask them for their address, so I can come to their house to give them an invitation and to preach the good news of Buddha.

The Ploughing Festival
In May, when the moon is half-full, two white oxen pull a gold painted plough, followed by four girls dressed in white who scatter rice seeds from gold and silver baskets. This is to celebrate the Buddha's first moment of enlightenment, which is said to have happened when the Buddha was seven years old, when he had gone with his father to watched the ploughing. (Known in Thailand as Raek Na

The Story of the Festival Goes..
The Ploughing Festival owes its orgin to the times when Prince Gautama was just a child, seven years of age. At the point of time, an annual ploughing festival was held when the rice field was ploughed. Once, king Sudhodana took along his son, Prince Gautama, to see the festival. There, the little prince fell asleep. Discovering that the prince had fallen asleep, His maids left Him and went to join in the festivities. On waking up, the prince found Himself alone. Instead of getting hassled, he engaged Himself in meditation. He breathed in and out and thereby attained one-pointedness of the mind and developed the First Ecstasy (Jhana). On their return, the maids were completely surprised to find the little prince meditating. They immediately informed the king about it and he was equally surprised to his son in a meditative posture. He was so impressed that he saluted his young son and said, "This, dear child is my second salutation".

The Ploughing Festival of Thailand

Later, in His life, the prince used the same form of meditation and attained enlightened. The Ploughing festival celebrates the first enlightenment of prince Gautama or the Buddh