Inside Scientology

In case you missed it, the St. Pete Times has published a voluminous three-part series on Scientology and how its current leaders came to power. It’s fascinating reading so far, but I confess I’m still working through it. Here’s a juicy nugget about how Scientologists “lobbied” the IRS to get a non-profit designation: “Overwhelm the […]

In case you missed it, the St. Pete Times has published a voluminous three-part series on Scientology and how its current leaders came to power. It’s fascinating reading so far, but I confess I’m still working through it.

Here’s a juicy nugget about how Scientologists “lobbied” the IRS to get a non-profit designation: “Overwhelm the IRS. Force mistakes. The church filed about 200 lawsuits against the IRS, seeking documents to prove IRS harassment and challenging the agency’s refusal to grant tax exemptions to church entities. Some 2,300 individual Scientologists also sued the agency, demanding tax deductions for their contributions….

Armed with IRS records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Scientology’s magazine, Freedom, featured stories on alleged IRS abuses: lavish retreats on the taxpayers’ dime; setting quotas on audits of individual Scientologists; targeting small businesses for audits while politically connected corporations were overlooked. Scientologists distributed the magazine on the front steps of the IRS building in Washington.”


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