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[edit] The Holy Grail

One of Scientology's main goals from the start was to gain tax-exemption status; a major stepping-stone in building their financial empire, and a practical way to keep the authorities eyes out of their bookkeeping. Expose the scam - revoke their status! Doing so will cripple their organization and will mark the beginning of their total dissolution.

They were granted "religion" status in the '60s; after a bunch of illegal shenanigans it was revoked; in the '90s Clinton let them have it again after pressure from lots of celebrity/Hollywood political donors.

• Write your congressman. Remember: Snail-mail is more effective. A handwritten, non form letter, even if not very well written, is worth a lot because they assume that even though it's only one letter, there are only a small percentage of people who care about the issue that will get around to writing one. So it seems there are more of us than there really are.
  • Use various methods of subterfuge when mailing it. See if you can avoid a return address. With the knowledge of Operation Snow White, one honestly has to wonder how far Scientology has embedded itself.

• To write local and state representatives, search here [1] here

[2] and here [3]. Search by state and/or zip code to find a rep near you! Send them an e-mail.

• If successful, the revocation of their tax exempt status in conjunction with more leaked data would help expose $cientology's many front groups, umbrella organizations, and top leadership to prosecution under the RICO Act. You may have a RICO case if the charges include extortion, theft, bribery, kidnapping, obstruction of justice, human trafficking and slavery (Flag Base), etc. over an extended period of time. Leaks proving that WISE, SeaOrg, CoST, CofS, RTC, ABLE, Criminon/Narconon, Applied Scholastics, and many others are connected under a single umbrella ensure that we are doing more than severing a single head from this sprawling hydra. Such connections also thwart their ability to act as a moving target, especially when recent criminal activity in Europe exposes a pattern traced back to Los Angeles and Clearwater. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations sounds fairly apt, amirite?

[edit] Lobbying Tips

Senator Chuck Grassley is a Senator from IOWA. He is a part of the religious right movement but he is currently conducting a probe into the activities of Tax exempt status of Televangelist Christian Churches. The kinds that preach charity but live in Giant mansions, Kind of like how David Miscaviage does. There will not be a greater opportunity to get congressional attention focused on Co$ than while a probe is currently underway. It will be far more difficult to get them to set one up a new one specifically for Co$. It is therefore the duty of every U.S based anon, especially those living in Iowa to send e-mails, Phone his offices and Send Snail mail.

Senator Max Baucus Is a democrat from Montana. He is the chairman of the senate finance committee that Grassley is the ranking member on.

The House Committee on Ways and Means is a more powerful body that will be more useful though not necessarialy as receptive as Grassley would be. The Chairman is Charles B. Rangel of New York. The ranking member is Jim McCrery of Louisiana.

Mention how

• Scientology uses front organizations to recruit members

• Sues everyone in order to intimidate and use donations from their followers to do it

• Their non-religious related money making efforts

• The huge pressure they exert to extract money from followers and how this pressure is used to extract more money.

Get this info out to all anons. It is something that will yield results in a relatively short amount of time. If we can get Scientology onto those terms of reference it will be the most epic of wins we could have hoped for.

SPREAD THIS AROUND TO THE VARIOUS BOARDS AND CHANNELS

See also Project Chanology/Political Letters

[edit] Add useful ideas and links here.

• • • NEW PLAN IDEA!! SPREAD THE IDEA OF PROTESTING Co$ TAX STATUS AT IRS BUILDINGS NATIONWIDE!! THIS WILL GET THEIR ATTENTION!!*** let's set a date!

• Form letter for writing politicans
• Politicians consider a personally-written, "in your own words" message to have the value of up to 1000 form letters. Your letter will represent to them the voices of 1000 people who didn't write.
  • A form letter is still better than nothing at all. A lot more people would participate if at least a template letter was posted.

Perhaps people could put some especially important "talking points" here.

A phone call is valued even higher.

Use your IRL name and address. Perfectly legal, and to do otherwise diminishes the impact. You should come across as a concerned citizen, not as Anonymous.

European here, sorry, English is not my native language, hope I can contribute something useful. I wonder why I did not read anything about it until now, but you are at the beginning of a presidential election campaign in the US - so demand some answers regarding the CoS from your candidates. I don´t think it will be the most decisive point for voters, but you might nail the candidates and get even more media coverage. As soon as one candidate states something, probably all the others must define their positions. With - hopefully - lots of media looking at the tax exemption deal, it could be major win. So go and ask your candidates every time you have a chance to, and demand media coverage. I'm not that informed about your domestic political situation, but as far as I remember, Bill Clinton was amongst those who accepted the CoS as a legitimate religion, according to lermanet.com he even sent "warm greetings". Point Hillary Clinton's opponents to that, probably they will try to take advantage of it and raise that issue. Corrections in above § are welcome. [Corrected (it was very good to begin with : D)]

I'm from the UK so I can't do anything about this, but today I found a particularly interesting article on xenu.net, fully sourced, giving a comprehensive argument as to why the tax exemption should never have been granted in the first place and, critically, how aspects of the deal have already been infringed by the 'church' such that the deal ought to be void, e.g. their refusal to offer refunds to dissatisfied former members. Have you considered contacting the IRS directly? They must have some sort of claims department; particularly interesting would be if you could find some former Scientologists who are active antis (I've seen references to such people elsewhere on this site), and having them address their complaints to the IRS would at least necessitate a response, which could be posted and potentially circulated to the media and in your efforts to contact elected representatives. The page I was refering to is here [4].

[edit] PETITION

A printable petition for tax-exemption status removal can be found here: http://rapidshare.com/files/88881078/CoS_exemption_petition.doc.html This is a direct petition to the IRS to revoke the tax-exemption status of The Church of Scientology, citing infractions of U.S. Tax Code 503(a).[5] Please note that all signers must be registered to vote for their signatures to count. Contact with the IRS is currently being established to make this an officially recognized petition. A mailing address for signatures collected will be posted as soon as possible. Online petitions also work although they aren't acceptable for all forms of petitions(i.e. elections) it still would help one is at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Anonymous/ please do sign your name just check the box stated as display name as anonymous.

http://forums.enturbulation.org/viewtopic.php?t=2260

[edit] Form email

While personalised snail mail is the best way to contact elected representives, people are inheritantly lazy. Having a form where users enter thuier perosnal details and have a form letter sent by email would at least start an influx of emails to where it matters. People who are devoted enough to write a personalised letter will, but we should still make use of those that won't.

[edit] To Do

• Come up with a list of elected officals in each country that have portfolos/background in religion or tax/internal revenue.

• Create a webpage like utilised by other orgs (see [6] here) A page for every country.

• Many people have created fake/temp emails to use just for this. utilise this to create a mailing list, every week the target of the form email changes, and sends out to our temp emails to inform us to send off another round of emails.

[edit] External Links

Here is a that is becoming a source for removal of tax exemption by mirroring information from here and other sites. http://www.coslobby.com

[edit] Links to Background Info & Resources

http://www.whyaretheydead.net/Cowen/essays/nytimes.html - The Shadowy Story Behind Scientology's Tax-Exempt Status

http://www.lisamcpherson.org/irs/jeff-irs.htm - Scientology's Tax Exemption Should be Rescinded

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/irs.html - Scientology vs the IRS - Great resource

http://www.lermanet2.com/scientologynews/WSJ-secretIRSagreement032597.html - IRS agreement with Scientology

http://exscn.net/showthread.php?t=3511 - Thanks to Tory & Freinds for all the above links

Here is how the Electronic Frontier Foundation (our allies, with many years of experience doing this) recommends that people contact their Congress-persons. Their advice should be considered excellent.

Background info on their tax-exempt status

[edit] Government Contact Information

[edit] Australian

Below is a letter to your elected representative about the dangers of Scientology Please take action!

[edit] Instructions

1. Copy and paste this letter to your favorite text editing software.

2. Replace ALL the text in {brackets} to your relevent information. The contact details for your representatives are list at the bottom of this article.

3. Print the complete letter on clean white paper.

4. Put your signature at the bottom of the letter.

5. Insert the letter into a clean white envelope, clearly addressed to your representative.

6. Afix the correct postage to envelope and drop the letter in a mailbox.

[edit] A few tips

You have more than one elected representative. You have representatives in the House of Representatives, the Senate and your state parliament. Send this letter to all of them. The more people talking about these issues, the more likely real action is going to be.

The presentation of your letter is important. Make sure that any writing you do, be it on the envelope or on the actual letter, is legible and neat. If you have bad handwriting, print the address on the envelope or get someone else to address the letter.

You will need to sign your own name and address on this letter. You cannot be anonymous and expect your representatives to treat you seriously. Besides, you are asking your representative to respond to your letter and they need to know who to respond to.

Get all your friends and family to send this letter too. The more people that raise Scientology as an issue, the more likely action is going to be.

[edit] Letter

{Align Right} {Your Firstname and Lastname}

{Align Right} {Your Street Address}

{Align Right} {Your Town/Suburb}, {State and PC}

{Rep's Firstname and Lastname}

{Rep's Street Address}

{Rep's Town/Suburb}, {State and PC}

Dear {Name of Representative},

I am contacting you in regards to some serious concerns I have about the Church of Scientology (CoS) in Australia. My understanding is that the CoS enjoys a tax exempt status on the basis that it is a religious organisation. The Australian Tax Office defines a tax exempt religion as 1 - belief in a supernatural Being, Thing or Principle; and 2 - acceptance and observance of canons of conduct in order to give effect to that belief.

My main concern is that these qualifiers of a tax exempt status for religious institutions are too broad and are easily taken advantage of. I understand that defining a religion too finely can have an adverse effect; however, I would like to see additional ongoing oversight in the practices that exempt religious institutions from tax. My view is that the CoS has taken advantage of the broad definition of a religious organisation for the sole purpose of their own financial benefit.

In Chapter 20 of the Report of the Inquiry into the Definition of Charities and Related Organisations of 2001, the Committee's conclusions say: "Organisations that have as their dominant purpose the advancement of religion are for the public benefit because they aim to satisfy the spiritual needs of the community". My understanding is that the CoS requires donations from members before they are able to read the teachings and advance past the initial meetings. The payments required for their spiritual guidance are in addition to the tax benefits the CoS receives from the community. My concern is that this double dipping is to the detriment of the public.

Moreover, if the community provides the CoS with a tax exempt status, the CoS should be accountable to the community. I believe that all of the financial records of the CoS should be available for public scrutiny to gauge the benefit the CoS provides. It is near impossible to find reliable information on where and how the CoS spends the tax exempt funds it raises. The CoS appears to have large sums of money to wage legal battles against information that may portray them in a negative way. The many court cases against the publication of Andrew Morton's book and the attempts to remove a Tom Cruise video from youtube.com are both against the spirit of free speech and appear extremely wasteful of funds when the CoS should be benefiting the community.

I would like to point your attention to the Anderson Report of 1965 by Kevin Victor Anderson, Q.C., which was the basis for the prohibition of the CoS in the states of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia in the late 1960's. The enquiry was presented with documents revealing "a most alarming feature of Scientology, namely, the tremendous power which the HASI (Hubbard Association of Scientologists International) is in a position to exercise over its preclears, for they contain the record of intimate disclosures made by thousands of preclears at a time when normal inhibitions and restraints were suspended and they were revealing their most secret hopes and fears, their shame and grief and guilt." These disclosures are carefully archived by the CoS and used for harassment, blackmail and character assassination against members of the CoS that may want to leave the organisation and speak out against them. Numerous personal accounts to this effect can be found on www.xenu.net.

The Anderson report also says: "One of the great dangers of Scientology is that it poisons the minds of its followers against the medical profession and generates an abhorrence of medical treatment generally, and psychiatric and psychological treatment in particular." and "Thinly disguised as something of quality and value, Scientology has insidiously infiltrated the community. In reality it is a dangerous medical cult, with special though not exclusive interest in mental health, and it is concerned primarily to discredit orthodox medicine and psychology and in lieu thereof offer its deluded victims dangerous hypnotic and other techniques which falsely masquerade as scientific." The detriment that the CoS causes to the community can be clearly seen in the double murder in Revesby, NSW on the 5th of July, 2007, which was caused by the denial of professional psychiatric help by the teachings of the CoS.

The prohibition on the CoS was lifted only after a long and expensive legal battle, specifically the cases Hubbard Association of Scientologists -v- Anderson (1971) VR 788; Hubbard Association of Scientologists v. Anderson (1972) VR 340 [appeal of 1971 VR 740]; and Hubbard Association of Scientologists International v Anderson and Just (No 2) (1972) VR 577. I am very surprised that the Anderson Report was put aside at the time, because it is very critical of the practices of the CoS. It would be interesting to read the judgement in these cases, but the court documents for these cases are not widely available. Paulette Cooper outlines some of the arguments used by the Cos to overturn the Anderson report in her book, The Scandal of Scientology. The reaction to the publication of this book by the CoS is most disturbing. Operation Freakout was mounted by the CoS with the sole purpose of discrediting Paulette Cooper by any means possible, including many illegal means. These are certainly not qualities of a religious organisation that is to the benefit of the community.

Many countries in Europe are reviewing the status of the CoS and Germany has classified it as a business, even going so far as to considering a ban. Also, the decision (1999) of the Commissioners of the Charity Commission in the United Kingdom to the application by the CoS for registration as a charity found "that CoS was not established for charitable purposes or for the public benefit and was therefore not registrable as a charity" If other countries are deciding that the CoS was not founded for the public benefit, it is time for Australia to review the status we have given it.

In conclusion, I am seriously disturbed by the honesty and ethics of the CoS and it's conduct around the world. The CoS is raising tax exempt funds and using them for mysterious and unknown purposes. Whilst I believe that the tax exempt status awarded to most religious organisations are to the public benefit, I feel the faith we put into the CoS is misplaced. I implore you to seek more information on this issue and take action on the tax benefits the CoS receives. In addition, I urge you to seek more information and take action on the medical practices used and recommended by the CoS.

L Ron Hubbard, the founder of the CoS, admitted himself in 1948: "You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion."

I eagerly await hearing your opinion on these issues.

Thank you,

{YOUR SIGNATURE}

{your Firstname and Lastname}

[edit] Your Representatives

Send this letter to all your representatives at State and Federal level. The more people that talk about this issue, the more that gets done.

[edit] Federal Representatives

List of Federal Members by Electorate

PDF document with contact details of all Federal Members

[edit] Senators

Contact details for Senators

[edit] State Representatives

Queensland State Representatives

NSW State Representatives

Victoria State Representatives

Western Australia State Representatives

South Australia State Representatives

Tasmania State Representatives

Northern Territory State Representatives

http://www.directory.gov.au/

• • 28/01/08 HUGE NOTE: I am an anonymous with a relative in a good position to put forward your claim to have scientology removed from a tax exempt status in Australia. My uncle is an Ombudsman (someone who interprets and can lobby against findings, laws and the like) and I would be perfectly happy to forward an OFFICIAL LETTER WITH NO BARREL ROLLS ETC to him for perusal.
    • THIS HOWEVER DOES NOT MEAN THAT I WILL REPRESENT ANONYMOUS SHOULD THE CASE BE GOOD ENOUGH TO GO TO COURT I DON'T WANT SCIENTOLOGISTS HARASSING ME.
    • SOMEONE WILL NEED TO STEP UP AS THE COMPLAINTIVE.
      • We should make contact with the Australian Skeptics organisation. They will be willing to help or put us in contact with someone that will. I will do this, if others are interested they shouldn't be afraid to do so as well. Write the letter. We'll have to have a draft of something we can show people before we ask them to put their names to it.
  • If someone can actually find a legal fault with the finding (any lawyers out there?) or something tenuous that could be used against them, email me with a written copy of the letter at: Ombudsmananon@hotmail.com And i'll send it on to get an official stance by the Australian Government's own regulatory body.
    • The case is here http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1983/40.html
    • A copy of the article released in The Australian about the findings in 1983[7]

[edit] Canada

Scientology does not have tax exempt status in Canada (wikipedia). In fact, Canada has convicted Scientology with breaching the public trust.

Not much to do here, apart from picket their offices.

However, in Quebec, it appears that Scientology is recognized as an official religion according to this title of an article in the Gazette. "Quebec Scientologists declare victory after gaining official religious status"[8]

This may require further investigation, as this is the first step to aquire tax exemption. It will be alot eaiser to remove thier status as a religion than remove tax exempt status. This is actually a major concern, and needs to be investigated into further.

[edit] United Kingdom

[edit] Downing Street online petitions

Thanks for telling me about this, YouTube! Although you need to be a UK citizen to participate in these. DEPLOY THE BRITFAGS!

• [9] - Request government investigation into Scientology pay practices. This, if it went ahead, could also flag up any other bookeeping irregularities as external auditors (lol irony) go through sections of their accounts.
• [10] - Request rejection of attempts by Scientology to gain religious status in the UK.
• [11] - Scientology has worrying ties with the Metropolitan Police via Narconon and Crimonon. This has to be stopped, and it's getting into schools with dangerous anti-psychiatric/medicinal propaganda.
• [12] - Request forced name change under existing legislation as 'Church' is misleading for a non-religious (for the UK) organisation.
• [13] - Request the prohibition of Narconon being used by publicly funded bodies.

--Anon555 16:11, 10 February 2008 (PST) Someone has mentioned that Scientology actually has achieved VAT Exempt status in the UK since like 2002 through some sort of legal backdoor/loophole, though they are still being refused to be recognised as a religion/charity. Can anyone find info to confirm their tax/VAT status in the UK? I think the argument used by Co$ was that they provide education and are not for profit(pfft).

[edit] United States

Below are form letters detailing the violations of the 501(c)(3) code, tailored for politicians, journalists and the IRS (roughly the same letter with different front and back matter). Make sure to put the name of your representative or the journalist you are contacting. Plus, the representatives of the Los Angeles area are:

Henry Waxman (Hollywood) Howard Berman (North Hollywood) Xavier Becerra Adam Schiff Brad Sherman

So contact them as well!

Also: Sign the petition [14] to call for an IRS investigation of the CoS's tax-exempt status! We have to get many thousands of signatures. You should put your real name if you are un-terrified. But if not, sign with a real name, not with an obviously fake name.

Digg the petition [15] Digg!!!

I believe that many of the higher up CoS members get commissions(!) on the amount of "religious donations" they get for the "church". How can income that is used to pay a sales "commission" be considered "religious donations"? (I think I heard this on XenuTV, but could someone reverif before we reverify it and put it in letters?) (Yah I read that on wiki "Scientology pays members commissions on new recruits they bring in, encouraging Scientology members to "sell" Scientology to others" Source http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/time-behar.html)

Politicians

Dear (Insert Name of Representative),
It has recently come to my attention that the “Church of Scientology” operates as a tax-exempt organization, in much the same way my local Church does. This would not be distressing to me, but I have also learned a number of startling things about questionable, and in some cases illegal, actions undertaken by the aforementioned organization.
According to the IRS website : (http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=96099,00.html)
"To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.
...
The organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, and no part of a section 501(c)(3) organization's net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. If the organization engages in an excess benefit transaction with a person having substantial influence over the organization, an excise tax may be imposed on the person and any organization managers agreeing to the transaction.”
Additionally, it states:
“Section 501(c)(3) organizations are restricted in how much political and legislative (lobbying) activities they may conduct.”
All of these are fundamental to the insurance of fair and proper conduct by charitable organizations, but the Church of Scientology violates several of these important tenets. Furthermore, IRS publication 557 states:
“To determine whether an organization meets the religious purposes test of section 501(c)(3), the IRS maintains two basic guidelines.
“1. That the particular religious beliefs of the organization are truly and sincerely held.
2. That the practices and rituals associated with the organization's religious belief or creed are not illegal or contrary to clearly defined public policy. “
While it cannot be argued that their beliefs aren't truly and sincerely held, it can be easily argued that the “Church of Scientology” and its public practices have been illegal or contrary to clearly defined public policy.
It has, for instance, engaged in systematic harassment of its critics, and has used money contributed completely free of taxation to hire Private Investigators who provide the information necessary for continued harassment. In one case, “...The California Court of Appeal noted that Scientology "uses the litigation process to bludgeon the opponent into submission" (in this case, the opponent was former Scientologist Larry Wollersheim) and fined Scientology $2,900,000.”
In 2000, former Scientologist Jesse Prince was followed by no less than three Private Investigators constantly for at least four days. And in 2002, “Ida Camburn, 79-year-old mother of a Scientologist who has disconnected from her” was harassed “by a PI making unfounded statements about a 'cake bomb'”. These are not the only instances, and the public has been given no reason to believe such harassment has ceased. This is due to the fact that Scientology Policy clearly states, "The purpose of a lawsuit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. ... The law can be used very easily to harass ... If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."
They have sought to silence critics in this way even shortly after receiving their tax-exempt status. After only a few year, “Brian Haney testified in court that Scientology executives at the Ohio org planned to use confidential information to silence a former member and repel his refund request.” A complete transcript of his testimony can be found at the following website:
http://whyaretheydead.net/lisa_mcpherson/bob/A-004-061902-Haney-V1.html
And what's more, they have used RICO suits and been publicly accused of attempting to extort money or silence out of critics Bob Minton and Michael Pattinson.
In addition, they have conspired to denigrate their critics through intentional misrepresentation of their positions and beliefs on internet communications and have done so while purporting to be critics, not while defending themselves from critics. They have been sued for alleged “conspiracy, misrepresentation and breach of constitutional rights, and have in many documented cases attempted to disconnect members from their parents and family, and harassed those who have decided to leave the organization.
Furthermore, they have violated one of the most plainly stated parts of the IRS code by engaging in lobbying efforts against bills regarding mental health and the availability of psychiatric care to American citizens, most often through front groups like the CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights), which has attacked spending on Mental Health parity in Health Insurance legislation and have consistently acted as a lobbying body which attempts to destroy mental health funding.
As if all of this were not hellacious enough, it has come to my attention that current members of the organization are forced to sign a waiver which allows the Church to hold members against their will, a document written in response to the notorious Lisa McPherson incident. Not only did the Church of Scientology not change from the incident, it has shown no real remorse for the deaths of its members and rather than alter their policies to ensure such crimes do not happen again, they have attempt to circumvent the law. While these waivers may in some sense be legal, I would submit that they most certainly do not constitute the expected actions of a charitable, religious organization.
The Church of Scientology was granted their tax-exempt status roughly 15 years ago, and in that time they have violated several of the key points of Section 501(c)(3), including lobbying for legislation, the harassment of critics, fraud and other acts that have broken the law and damaged the trust of the public. Being that it is the Church of Scientology proper and not any splinter or sub-group that has committed the majority of these acts, I ask as your constituent to please do whatever is necessary to open an investigation as to their continued qualifications as a tax-exempt organization, and push to revoke their status under Section 501(c)(3).

More information, including more thorough references to the events cited can be found at
http://www.xenu.net
and
http://www.scientology-lies.com/action/irs-regs.html

Journalists

Dear (name of journalist),

It has recently come to my attention that the “Church of Scientology” operates as a tax-exempt organization. This is extremely unjust, and I write you now because undoubtedly you are aware that in the last several years journalists have been some of the few people brave enough to stand up and criticize the actions of the “Church of Scientology”.
According to the IRS website : (http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=96099,00.html)
"To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.
...
The organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, and no part of a section 501(c)(3) organization's net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. If the organization engages in an excess benefit transaction with a person having substantial influence over the organization, an excise tax may be imposed on the person and any organization managers agreeing to the transaction.”
Additionally, it states:
“Section 501(c)(3) organizations are restricted in how much political and legislative (lobbying) activities they may conduct.”
All of these are fundamental to the insurance of fair and proper conduct by charitable organizations, but the Church of Scientology violates several of these important tenets. Furthermore, IRS publication 557 states:
“To determine whether an organization meets the religious purposes test of section 501(c)(3), the IRS maintains two basic guidelines.
“1. That the particular religious beliefs of the organization are truly and sincerely held.
2. That the practices and rituals associated with the organization's religious belief or creed are not illegal or contrary to clearly defined public policy. “
While it cannot be argued that their beliefs aren't truly and sincerely held, it can be easily argued that the “Church of Scientology” and its public practices have been illegal or contrary to clearly defined public policy.
It has, for instance, engaged in systematic harassment of its critics, and has used money contributed completely free of taxation to hire Private Investigators who provide the information necessary for continued harassment. In one case, “...The California Court of Appeal noted that Scientology "uses the litigation process to bludgeon the opponent into submission" (in this case, the opponent was former Scientologist Larry Wollersheim) and fined Scientology $2,900,000.”
In 2000, former Scientologist Jesse Prince, was followed by no less than three Private Investigators constantly for at least four days. And in 2002, “Ida Camburn, 79-year-old mother of a Scientologist who has disconnected from her” was harassed “by a PI making unfounded statements about a 'cake bomb'”. These are not the only instances, and the public has been given no reason to believe such harassment has ceased. This is due to the fact that Scientology Policy clearly states, ""The purpose of a lawsuit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. ... The law can be used very easily to harass ... If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."
They have sought to silence critics in this way even shortly after receiving their tax-exempt status, as after only a few year, “Brian Haney testified in court that Scientology executives at the Ohio org planned to use confidential information to silence a former member and repel his refund request.” A complete transcript of his testimony can be found at the following website:
http://whyaretheydead.net/lisa_mcpherson/bob/A-004-061902-Haney-V1.html
And what's more, they have used RICO suits and been publicly accused of attempting to extort money or silence out of critics Bob Minton and Michael Pattinson.
In addition, they have conspired to denigrate their critics through intentional misrepresentation of their positions and beliefs on internet communications and have done so while purporting to be critics, not while defending themselves from critics. They have been sued for alleged “conspiracy, misrepresentation and breach of constitutional rights, and have in many documented cases attempted to disconnect members from their parents and family, and harassed those who have decided to leave the organization.
Furthermore they have violated one of the most plainly stated parts of the IRS code by engaging in lobbying efforts against bills regarding mental health and the availability of psychiatric care to American citizens, most often through front groups like the CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights), which has attacked spending on Mental Health parity in Health Insurance legislation and have consistently acted as a lobbying body which attempts to destroy mental health funding.
As if all of this were not hellacious enough, it has come to my attention that current members of the organization are forced to sign a waiver which allows the Church to hold members against their will, a document written in response to the notorious Lisa McPherson incident. Not only did the Church of Scientology not change from the incident, it has shown no real remorse for the deaths of its members and rather than alter their policies to ensure such crimes do not happen again, they have attempt to circumvent the law. While these waivers may in some sense be legal, I would submit that they most certainly do not constitute the expected actions of a charitable, religious organization.
So I ask you to please consider investigating this matter further and if the information startles you as much as it has startled me, please also consider writing about the 501(c)(3) status of the organization and put questions in the public eye that demand to be answered. Thank you for your time.

http://www.xenu.net
and
http://www.scientology-lies.com/action/irs-regs.html

Conservative Journalists/talk show hosts

Call in/write in to conservative journalists and talk show hosts (Rush Limbaugh, Drudge Report, etc) pointing out Scientology's criminal past and raise questions about the Clinton connection.

• Lobbied Germany on Scientology's behalh
• reinstated cult's tax-exempt status

Point out

• Forced & reccomended abortions in Scion's sea org
• Scion's anti-family practices

Useful links

• [16]
• (this isn't useful, just a funny mashup between hillary and tom cruise

IRS

It has recently come to my attention that the “Church of Scientology” operates as a tax-exempt organization. I would like to log a complaint. The “Church of Scientology” has violated the good trust of the American public, and have violated several of the IRS codes in the subsequent fifteen years since they were granted tax-exempt status.
According to the IRS website : (http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=96099,00.html)
"To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.
...
The organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, and no part of a section 501(c)(3) organization's net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. If the organization engages in an excess benefit transaction with a person having substantial influence over the organization, an excise tax may be imposed on the person and any organization managers agreeing to the transaction.”
Additionally, it states:
“Section 501(c)(3) organizations are restricted in how much political and legislative (lobbying) activities they may conduct.”
All of these are fundamental to the insurance of fair and proper conduct by charitable organizations, but the Church of Scientology violates several of these important tenets. Furthermore, IRS publication 557 states:
“To determine whether an organization meets the religious purposes test of section 501(c)(3), the IRS maintains two basic guidelines.
“1. That the particular religious beliefs of the organization are truly and sincerely held.
2. That the practices and rituals associated with the organization's religious belief or creed are not illegal or contrary to clearly defined public policy. “
While it cannot be argued that their beliefs aren't truly and sincerely held, it can be easily argued that the “Church of Scientology” and its public practices have been illegal or contrary to clearly defined public policy.
It has, for instance, engaged in systematic harassment of its critics, and has used money contributed completely free of taxation to hire Private Investigators who provide the information necessary for continued harassment. In one case, “...The California Court of Appeal noted that Scientology "uses the litigation process to bludgeon the opponent into submission" (in this case, the opponent was former Scientologist Larry Wollersheim) and fined Scientology $2,900,000.”
In 2000, former Scientologist Jesse Prince, was followed by no less than three Private Investigators constantly for at least four days. And in 2002, “Ida Camburn, 79-year-old mother of a Scientologist who has disconnected from her” was harassed “by a PI making unfounded statements about a 'cake bomb'”. These are not the only instances, and the public has been given no reason to believe such harassment has ceased. This is due to the fact that Scientology Policy clearly states, ""The purpose of a lawsuit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. ... The law can be used very easily to harass ... If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."
They have sought to silence critics in this way even shortly after receiving their tax-exempt status. After only a few years, “Brian Haney testified in court that Scientology executives at the Ohio org planned to use confidential information to silence a former member and repel his refund request.” A complete transcript of his testimony can be found at the following website:
http://whyaretheydead.net/lisa_mcpherson/bob/A-004-061902-Haney-V1.html
What's more, they have used RICO suits and been publicly accused of attempting to extort money or silence out of critics Bob Minton and Michael Pattinson.
In addition, they have conspired to denigrate their critics through intentional misrepresentation of their positions and beliefs on internet communications and have done so while purporting to be critics, not while defending themselves from critics. They have been sued for alleged “conspiracy, misrepresentation and breach of constitutional rights, and have in many documented cases attempted to disconnect members from their parents and family, and harassed those who have decided to leave the organization.”
Furthermore, they have violated one of the most plainly stated parts of the IRS code by engaging in lobbying efforts against bills regarding mental health and the availability of psychiatric care to American citizens, most often through front groups like the CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights), which has attacked spending on Mental Health parity in Health Insurance legislation and have consistently acted as a lobbying body which attempts to destroy mental health funding.
As if all of this were not hellacious enough, it has come to my attention that current members of the organization are forced to sign a waiver which allows the Church to hold members against their will, a document written in response to the notorious Lisa McPherson incident. Not only did the Church of Scientology not change from the incident, it has shown no real remorse for the deaths of its members and rather than alter their policies to ensure such crimes do not happen again, they have attempt to circumvent the law. While these waivers may in some sense be legal, I would submit that they most certainly do not constitute the expected actions of a charitable, religious organization.
The Church of Scientology was granted their tax-exempt status roughly 15 years ago, and in that time they have violated several of the key points of Section 501(c)(3), including lobbying for legislation, the harassment of critics, fraud and other acts that have broken the law and damaged the trust of the public. Being that it is the Church of Scientology proper and not any splinter or sub-group that has committed the majority of these acts, I ask you to open an investigation into their tax-exempt status. I am sure that if you do, you will find that in this time of economic downturn and budget crisis, they have been acting as a for-profit institution, have violated tax-exemption codes, and should pay their fair share to our proud nation.

http://www.xenu.net
and
http://www.scientology-lies.com/action/irs-regs.html

[edit] To Do

• American: http://www.conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm
• Australia
• Italy
• South Africa
• Spain
• New Zealand
• Portugal
• Any other countries which grant tax exempt status to the Co$ needs to be added.

[edit] Where to send complaints to IRS (U.S.)

http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=139029,00.html (Apparently snail-mail only; would likely require a much more detailed argument than for congresspeople.)

The address for the IRS complaint division is:

IRS - EO Classification, 1100 Commerce Street, MC 4910 DAL, Dallas, TX 75242

So write your own letters or print out the form letter for the IRS and send it snail-mail to them. Complaints from citizens and (hopefully) from politicians will force them to log the complaints and investigate their accuracy. More complaints means more clout, so SEND IN THE LETTERS.

[edit] Where to check for violations

Do a quick search up on http://anonym.to/http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/index.html to find any other violations in US law such as CFR. Please link Scientology violations below (include Code#). If we compile this it would be easier to convince the IRS and the FBI to do investigations to for tax reasons. Plus it is easier to compile info about them.

[edit] List of Public Officials that are For and Against Scientology

In order to effectively utilize resources, a list of Federal Politicians for and against Scientology needs to be created. With contact details for each, we can see where pressure needs to be applied. (Please update data locally, if links are outdated.)

Pages such as those below need to be put together shaming & naming politicians in the US & abroad.

Florida: http://home.tampabay.rr.com/sp/FLA.html