AZspot AZspot

blue bits. red rocks.
Monday 27 August 2012
Romney lies about tithing

Tithing and Tax Deduction: a query and three replies at askamormon.com, a very orthodox site. The question is from a churchmember who (the respondents agree) is being overscrupulous about declaring his tithing on his tax return—i.e., he hasn’t been taking a deduction for it.

Two threads, How does tithing work with taxes and Is tithing tax deductible, from the also very orthodox LDS.net Forums.

So you’ve glanced at those links. Notice how there’s not a lot of anxiety or implied secrecy there about declaring your tithing on your tax return? That’s because it’s not an issue and never has been. Romney made that up. People’s tax returns are their own business unless they run for president, but the amount a Mormon pays in tithing isn’t a bigger secret than the other info in his or her return.

The aspect of tithing that is personal and private is how you arrived at the figure you paid. The commandment in question says tithing is 10% of your increase. Whether that’s calculated on gross or net, total income or income after taxes, is between you and God. Romney has relocated the secrecy that properly applies to a transaction between him and God, to the deductions he took for tithing on his tax return, which is between him and Caesar.

This man will lie about anything and he is bad at it. He is a stupid, stupid liar.

But let’s go back to the business of Mormons and tithing. The “let your conscience be your guide” approach to calculating tithing works out pretty well for God, since Mormons overall tend not to nickle-and-dime Him. If it’s income, they pay tithing on it. That means they tithe on payouts from retirement accounts, even though they tithed on the money they invested in it. If their Mormon parents gift them $100 out of the parents’ already-tithed funds, the recipient tithes $10 in turn.

Some of you will have already spotted the kicker: Mormon tithing practices don’t recognize clever loopholes and offshore schemes for hiding income. If it’s increase, you tithe. Romney’s religious excuse for not wanting to reveal his tithing is hogwash, but I can think of a more worldly reason he might flinch at it: if his declared income is out of synch with the amount of tithing he paid.

That could get interesting. It could also go either way. I assume Romney pays proportionally less than a retired Mormon schoolteacher because he thinks in terms like whether that money has already had tithing paid on it, whereas the schoolteacher just sees her retirement income as income. That attitude could look bad to other Mormons. The other possibility is that his tithing in some years has significantly exceeded 10% of his acknowledged income, which would look bad to just about everyone.

55 notes

  1. awalt2069 reblogged this from reagan-was-a-horrible-president
  2. theyoungwitch reblogged this from reagan-was-a-horrible-president
  3. anthropoliticscom reblogged this from reagan-was-a-horrible-president
  4. packers-and-pearls reblogged this from reagan-was-a-horrible-president
  5. mrscorpio reblogged this from reagan-was-a-horrible-president
  6. sexymodesttotalscreaminggenius reblogged this from reagan-was-a-horrible-president
  7. reagan-was-a-horrible-president reblogged this from truth-has-a-liberal-bias
  8. parkerlewiscanlose reblogged this from truth-has-a-liberal-bias
  9. carryonmywaywardjotuun reblogged this from questionall
  10. questionall reblogged this from truth-has-a-liberal-bias
  11. vegetarianlyfe reblogged this from truth-has-a-liberal-bias
  12. truth-has-a-liberal-bias reblogged this from other-stuff
  13. other-stuff reblogged this from azspot
  14. wiltonchambers reblogged this from azspot
  15. jemappellery reblogged this from azspot
  16. azspot posted this

A GNT creation ©2007–2013