Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Mormon Controlled Businesses

The title of this post is the link for Mormon Controlled Businesses. Why do they have tax exempt status? Just asking. I found this remarkable link at the lovely Franiam's place. Thanks Fran. I'm like a thief in the night.

11 comments:

Utah Savage said...

I have a feeling this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

I could swear I just read somewhere that they lost that privilege due to the amount of money contributed during our recent elections.

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

my bad - they are at RISK for lobbying against the gay marriage proposition.

http://lds501c3.wordpress.com/

BBC said...

I don't know about the exempt thing but when I had my parts house there for four years the Mormon business people were very good to me and helped me get going and growing.

And didn't try to convert me, never spoke to me about their religion at all.

Comrade Kevin said...

The Mormon kids we had around here were always super weird and full of problems.

I suppose I have a bad taste in my mouth about them because one of my friends, now an ex-Mormon, was molested by her father and the church totally covered it up.

Comrade Kevin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kulkuri said...

Every for profit business should be taxed regardless of who owns it. Also if churchs get involved in politics they should be taxed. Maybe they should be taxed double to make up for all the years of having a free ride!!

Randal Graves said...

Why do they have tax exempt status?

Magical underpants. Duh.

Utah Savage said...

God, Randal, you nailed that one. Exactly it's the magical underpants, rather more like a jumpsuit sort of thing. They're never supposed to take it off, ever, ever ever.

MRMacrum said...

Why do any religions have tax free exemptions? Any of the big ones and many if not most of the small ones have income generating businesses that rob form their parishoners tax base. Property rentals, websites selling whatever, the list is endless. And for what? To make money for the church. It has nothing to do with faith, prayers, or fuckin Sunday school. It's about making money so a select few can have the slickest church in town, build the biggest rectory for their favorite preacher or priest, and spread their influence in foreign lands and among people they should be leaving the hell alone.

Don't get me started.

KELSO'S NUTS said...

UTAH:

The boycott is a very important tool on the direct action belt, but it's very important to understand the individual business or corporate parent before taking that action.

I write this because it seems that there's a movement to boycott Marriott hotels brewing. Before doing that, it behooves any direct activist to find out which if any Marriott Hotels are owned and/or operated by the Marriott Corporation.

Sometimes they own or operate a Marriott hotel. Sometimes they have an ongoing franchise deal with the owner-operator, and a lot of the time a self-financed hotelier will pay a one-off fee to Marriott for the right to fly a Marriott flag and use the Marriott logo in neon lights, on stationery, etc. Those hotels may well change hands many times over and the current owner has nothing whatsoever to do with the Marriott Corporation.

I know this because the Royal Marriott in La Ciudad De Panama is completely gay-friendly. The owner is a liberal Jewish-Panameno.

The casino manager is Chino-Panameno and I have no idea what his religion is but I know for sure he's not a homophobe.

The 2nd in command is an Arab-Muslim-Panameno and is pretty business-like and the tough anti-discrimination laws would preclude him from allowing homophobia or having anything to do with Marriott if they promote homophobia because the fines and civil judgements could get very high.

I'm not carrying any water for the Royal Marriott. It's merely a situation in which two of my blogging goals dovetail: fighting homophobia and fighting reflexive American liberal anti-business prejudice. My ideological views are probably far to the left of most of the liberal blogosphere but I get frustrated from time to time at a prevailing attitude that all capitalism and all business, economics and finance is the province of oppressors or somehow not worth peoples' time.

I've never noticed you adopting that posture, by the way, UTAH. In case you were wondering.