GrreatTeacher

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Posts by GrreatTeacher

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  40

  Goodbye yhwh-Goodbye jesus

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  interesting report in a oxford university blog - the world is becoming less religious, (hurray!!!).

  quote: "an analysis of religious trends from 1981 to 2007 in 49 countries containing 60% of the world’s population did not find a global resurgence of religion—most high-income countries were becoming less religious—however, it did show that in 33 of the 49 countries studied, people had become more religious (norris and inglehart, 2011).

  but since 2007, things have changed with surprising speed.

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  GrreatTeacher

  Thank you, Phizzy.
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  39

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

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. 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.

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  GrreatTeacher

  Ahh, Terry always comes up with the best information!

  Can you tell us how to remove the wheels without a wheel lock?

  Open the doors without a keyfob?

  Start a vehicle without an ignition to jam a screwdriver into? Or not a manual transmission parked on a hill?

  So much has changed. I can't keep up!
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  8

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

  by Corney in

  1. jw
  2. 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.

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  GrreatTeacher

  "47. In particular, the domestic courts found that the applicant organisation was not eligible for the tax exemption since the religious literature received by it had been a “donation” within the meaning of Article 605 of the Civil Code and not a “gift” as defined in Article 594 of the same Code (see paragraph 24 above). Thus, in its decision of 30 July 2013 the Administrative Court, drawing a distinction between the notions of a “gift” and a “donation”, found that the reason the applicant organisation had been unable to benefit from the tax exemption under section 12 of the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organisations Act was that the shipment in question had constituted a “donation”, whereas the provision provided for a tax exemption in respect of “gifts” (see paragraph 18 above)."

  *And paragraph 13:

  "under the [VAT Act] transactions (operations) defined by law are subject to tax (considered a taxable object). ‘Monetary and other gifts or income received from citizens’ are not subject to [VAT] ... therefore ... the exception stated in [the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organisations Act] does not concern taxation under [the VAT Act] "

  
  

  *And paragraph 18:

  "(4) importation of goods under the ‘import for free turnover’ customs regime with the exception of cases defined by law.

  
  In accordance with section 12 of [the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organisations Act] ... monetary and other gifts received by religious organisations are not subject to taxation.

  For the above-mentioned provision to be applicable, a religious organisation is required to receive a gift.

  Article 594 of the Civil Code [of the Republic of Armenia] defines the concept of a ‘gift’, in particular pursuant to a gift contract, as one party (the donor) transferring or undertaking to transfer gratuitously property or property rights to the other party (the donee) ...

  Article 605 of the same Code in its turn defines the concept of a donation; in particular, a donation is a gift of property or a right for public interest purposes.

  It is clear from the above-mentioned provisions that the notions of ‘gift’ and ‘donation’ are unequivocally different from each other and they regulate different legal relations of a different nature.

  The examination of the contract referred to by the applicant shows that the religious literature has been donated to the applicant and therefore it is a donation and not a gift."

  
  
  
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  8

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

  by Corney in

  1. jw
  2. 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.

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  GrreatTeacher

  Yes. It was very clear and simple as explained in the references that you provided!

  It was found under a blue hyperlink that said, "The decision."

  I'm surprised you wouldn't read all of the information before posting it.
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  8

  Woman you killed 7 year old girl gets life imprisonment ...

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. current

  … and must serve a minimum of eight years.. eight f**king years?!

  what in the actual f**k!!

  the little girl's life is worth much more than that.. this is not justice.

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  GrreatTeacher

  She was a known schizophrenic. She had been admitted to psychiatric hospitals three times, having stabbed her mother and sister.

  Why was she released?
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  39

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

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. 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.

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  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.
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  8

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

  by Corney in

  1. jw
  2. 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.

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  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.
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  39

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

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. 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.

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  GrreatTeacher

  Menlo Park?
• 
  43

  Do You Believe In A “Deep State”?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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

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  GrreatTeacher

  Apparently Ben Stein was Deepthroat.

  "Bueller? Bueller?"
• 
  12

  UC Berkeley Study on Disaffiliation from JW

  by emmayataco in

  1. jw
  2. 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).

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  GrreatTeacher

  Marked to complete later