- Joined
- Feb 19, 2012
- Messages
- 29,957
- Reaction score
- 14,683
- Location
- Netherlands
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Moderate
Like in the US, churches and religious foundations/organizations that do good works, are exempt from taxation.
Scientology in the Netherlands has been fighting the Dutch belastingdienst (IRS) to also be granted tax exempt status, it has lead to a lengthy trial that even went up to our version of the supreme court and sent back again.
Yesterday, in a very critical ruling, the court has decided that Scientology is not entitled to tax exempt status.
Our supreme court sent the case back to a lower court because it ordered a substantial investigation into the bookkeeping of the Scientology organization in the Netherlands.
That investigation concluded that Scientology was not a charitable/organization that does good works and needed to be tax exempt because they received a lot of donations, etc. Instead, the investigation showed that Scientology's own money had been largely earned by services provided by the church for which it had been asking (on average) about 588 dollars an hour from the people taking those courses/services.
Scientology uses considerable (in monetary value) and fixed rates and mostly acts and charges like a commercial enterprise and not like a church/religious organization for the common good.
The Scientology church had been complaining that it was entitled to get the tax exempt status because refusing them that tax exempt status would be a sign of discrimination and denial of freedom of religion (on the part of the Dutch IRS).
In Europe the church is being investigated in some countries for being a criminal organization (Belgium) and in France it was found guilty of fraud. In the Netherlands top legal experts say that they hope that law enforcement is keeping an eye on Scientology due to the aggressive donation practices Scientology levies on it's members.
Scientology in the Netherlands has been fighting the Dutch belastingdienst (IRS) to also be granted tax exempt status, it has lead to a lengthy trial that even went up to our version of the supreme court and sent back again.
Yesterday, in a very critical ruling, the court has decided that Scientology is not entitled to tax exempt status.
Our supreme court sent the case back to a lower court because it ordered a substantial investigation into the bookkeeping of the Scientology organization in the Netherlands.
That investigation concluded that Scientology was not a charitable/organization that does good works and needed to be tax exempt because they received a lot of donations, etc. Instead, the investigation showed that Scientology's own money had been largely earned by services provided by the church for which it had been asking (on average) about 588 dollars an hour from the people taking those courses/services.
Scientology uses considerable (in monetary value) and fixed rates and mostly acts and charges like a commercial enterprise and not like a church/religious organization for the common good.
The Scientology church had been complaining that it was entitled to get the tax exempt status because refusing them that tax exempt status would be a sign of discrimination and denial of freedom of religion (on the part of the Dutch IRS).
In Europe the church is being investigated in some countries for being a criminal organization (Belgium) and in France it was found guilty of fraud. In the Netherlands top legal experts say that they hope that law enforcement is keeping an eye on Scientology due to the aggressive donation practices Scientology levies on it's members.
