Posts by GrreatTeacher

39

ExElder Friend Had To Go To His Former Kingdom Hall and this what he told me!

by minimus in

jw
friends

he was the secretary before he resigned years ago.

he has a business that kept him involved with the kingdom hall.

the hall was sold to another church.

GrreatTeacher

Wealth of information if you type Menlo Park into the search function on this site. Just rereading some of it.

Multimillion dollar property owned by the local congregation and the CO wanted it sold. Elders would not agree since the congregation held the title. CO had them all removed and disfellowshipped and the congregation was disbanded.

Yadda, yadda, yadda, more things happened that I need to read up on again. It ended up in court.

Very ugly and a stain on Watchtower's reputation.

EDIT: After doing some rereading I found that the property became valuable because it became surrounded by Silicon Valley. The location is now near to Facebook's corporate headquarters. The hall was owned free and clear by the local congregation. There were allegations that one of the local elder's names was forged and the bank account was cleared by a JW insider at the bank. The organization was accused of racketeering.

8

European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) dismissed numerous JW tax cases against Armenia

by Corney in

jw
friends

by three decisions handed down over the last year, the strasbourg court has declared 12 complaints, all named "christian religious organization of jehovah's witnesses against armenia", inadmissible.

the cases concerned imposition of value-added tax (vat) on imported literature - on 67 shipments received between 2007 and 2015, to be exact.

in short, the organization claimed that, first, the shipments should be tax-free pursuant to article 12 of the freedom of conscience act ("monetary and other gifts received by religious organisations, as well as income received from citizens shall not be subject to taxation"); secondly, the customs authorities arbitrarily determined the customs value of the imports based on, for example, the prices the bible society of armenia (affiliated with the dominant armenian apostolic church) sold imported religious literature.. up until march 2007, there were constant problems receiving regular shipments of religious literature, which should be tax-free but which customs arbitrarily reassessed at unpredictable higher values and then imposed a value-added tax of 20 percent.

GrreatTeacher

Further reading of some of the references clears up some of the confusion between gifts and donations. "Gifts" would not be subject to VAT tax because they are defined as "monetary donations." However, "donations" are defined as "goods," so the shipment of literature in question would be subject to VAT tax because it is not in monetary form. In fact, the dubs tried to revalue the goods at the lower value of the price they cost the organization to produce. They can't have it both ways.

Anyhow, a clearer understanding of the legal difference between a gift and a donation in Armenia should have been known and understood by the JWs. This was one of the reasons the European court found in not addressing the case. Armenia had made things clear and WT ignored the information. Armenia had clearly distinguished the differences between the two, it was clear that they required VAT tax to be paid on goods and that shipments of Bible literature were indeed goods (Donations) and not the Gifts (in monetary form) that were exempt from VAT tax.

You can bet WT would want the full retail value of the goods credited to them if it benefitted them. Remember when the "Donation" arrangement appeared in the late 80s and suddenly there were no donations to cover the literature that publishers were taking from the literature desk? The Society really quickly send letters imploring the brothers to consider the value of either cassettes or DVDs (which?) to be at least $100. Yet it was also commonly asked that the public purchase the Watchtower and Awake " just at the cost of printing." Yes 50 cents for 2 magazines; it cost them maybe 2 cents. Publishers were very aware of the markup and especially pioneers who got the literature for a lower price than other publishers at the literature counter. Very hypocritical and it appears they are playing both sides of the coin in this case as well. "If we have to pay VAT, then at least value the goods at what it actually cost us to make them, and, oh, by the way, they are donations (that we made to ourselves) and, uh, also monetary gifts..."

It sounds like they just threw everything at the problem seeing what might possibly stick.

39

ExElder Friend Had To Go To His Former Kingdom Hall and this what he told me!

by minimus in

jw
friends

he was the secretary before he resigned years ago.

he has a business that kept him involved with the kingdom hall.

the hall was sold to another church.

GrreatTeacher

Menlo Park?

43

Do You Believe In A “Deep State”?

by minimus in

jw
friends

or do you think the idea of a deep state is malarkey?

.

GrreatTeacher

Apparently Ben Stein was Deepthroat.

"Bueller? Bueller?"

12

UC Berkeley Study on Disaffiliation from JW

by emmayataco in

jw
friends

i'm a uc berkeley student researching the effects of disaffiliation from the jehovah's witnesses.

i'm not ex-jw but i am ex-mormon and as your cousin i can sympathize with the struggles we face when we question/leave the religion.. i currently have a survey open which closes on sunday the 20th at 11pm.. if you meet the criteria i encourage you to take the 20-30 minute survey.

-be at least 18 years old-born/raised jw (born in or family converted when you were minor)-"left" at least 6 months ago (left=inactive and questioning/non-believing).

GrreatTeacher

Marked to complete later

15

Thinking about Flipper

by HappyDad in

jw
friends

with all the fires raging in california and oregon, i have been thinking about flipper and hoping he is ok. .

flipper..........if you read this, know that we are sending love your way.

we will most likely worry about you until we hear from you..

GrreatTeacher

Seconded.

Fires in the west, hurricanes in the east.

Take care, everyone.

Flipper, you're near and dear to a lot of folks here.

I have heard the newscaster say Lake Tahoe once or twice and my heart leapt into my throat.

Thanks, HappyDad for the reminder to make an effort to communicate the love.

I hope Flip or Mrs. Flip check in here once in awhile. We love you both. Let us know if you need anything.

I know a lot of people who would be on the next plane out of town for you guys if you just said the word!

Love,

GT

27

UGHHHHH Wife wants to pioneer. Our future together doesn’t look promising

by goingthruthemotions in

ughhhhh wife wants to pioneer.

our future together doesn't look promising .

i told her she doesn’t know what she is getting into.

GrreatTeacher

GTTM, all this time I've thought that your username is Going Thru The Emotions.

I've been reading through your older posts and it really does seem that you've been going through a lot of Emotions for awhile now.

You've put up with a lot, you've got your sons out and your wife's behavior keeps deteriorating. You're posting a lot and you sound stressed.

Is it time to put a date on it?

You say your son is 17. Maybe give it till the end of high school for him and then you all 3 are free and clear?

And find counsel and get your affairs in order.

You don't have to put up with the crazy forever. You deserve to have a life, too. And it doesn't look good that your wife is going to change. It sounds like she's only getting in deeper.

Only you know how much you can tolerate, but I just wanted to remind you that you've done right by your sons. And you matter, too.

PS Don't leave the house. She has no right to kick you out. If your name is on the deed, mortgage, or lease it could really screw you.

PPS If the best divorce lawyer in town won't return your calls for a consultation, that means she's already hired them. It's better to be the first.

21

Have You Changed Your Viewing Habits Regarding Sports and Entertainment?

by minimus in

jw
friends

do you still avidly view sports and entertainment?

have you been affected by athletes views on racism, the national anthem, white peoples vs. black?

same question for those in the entertainment industry.

GrreatTeacher

I like baseball and the season has pretty much been trashed.

I usually go to one game at Camden Yards during the season and watch what I can on TV. It's nice just to have the game on in the background while puttering around the house.

What's annoying is that the local channels often don't carry baseball games anymore, and I have very limited cable. I won't pay for ESPN because it's outrageously expensive for just wanting the baseball game on in the background.

Sometimes a local channel will carry a game, for instance the World Series last year. That wasn't just on in the background. I was 3 feet in front of the TV for the whole thing!

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