Aug 07 2012
How the Mormon Church Makes Its Money
With a net income of $21.6 million according to 2010 tax records, Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney is the third richest person to run for U.S. president. Romney reluctantly released his 2010 tax records and an estimate of his 2011 taxes after considerable public pressure. Based on the released tax returns, financial analysts say the prospective Republican candidate donated $3 million to charity, eighty percent of which were given to the Church of Latter Day Saints. As a practicing Mormon, Romney is required to tithe 10 percent of his income to the Church. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission between 1997 to 2008, Romney’s donations were given primarily in the form of stock options from companies such as Burger King and Domino’s Pizza.
In addition to a significant tax break for Romney, this form of donation allowed the Mormon Church to sell the stock without paying any capital gains tax. Although religious organizations do not legally have to disclose their financial information, a recent investigation by Reuters estimated that the Church of Latter Day Saints is worth close to $40 billion and collects close to $8 billion in tithes every year. Until the 1990s the money the church collected in tithes was held at the local level, but now it is sent directly to the church’s Salt Lake City headquarters, which keeps no financial accounting of the funds. With the benefits of significant tax advantages for religious organizations, the Mormon Church has amassed a huge financial empire. Just this past year the Church spent $2 billion on a mega mall in downtown Salt Lake City while only having given, according to the church’s own records, $1.3 billion in humanitarian aid over the last 25 years.
GUEST: Caroline Winter, a reporter for Bloomberg Business week and author of the recent article How the Mormons Make Money.
17 Responses to “How the Mormon Church Makes Its Money”
There are numerous reports stating that this article (which has been re-posted by various Obama supporting media outlets) is blatantly false, incomplete, bias and downright stinky.
Yes, this report is incomplete and the final line makes it deceptive. The 1.3B figure represents financial donations to external charities, but doesn’t account for the much larger figures that come from internal charitable donations and service hours. It was deceptive when Business Week first reported the statistic, and it is deceptive today.
The $1.3B may be deceptive, but look at it another way: the LDS Church spent $2B on a new mega mall, with LDS President Monson kicking off the ribbon cutting with the declaration, “Let’s Go Shopping!” Meanwhile, the Catholic Church runs the homeless shelter in Salt Lake, a sign posted outside the entrance to the Salt Lake Temple directs patrons to not give money to the poor on the streets outside Temple Square, and homeless indigents freeze to death in Salt Lake and Provo every winter – the home courts for LDS Church headquarters and its flagship establishment, BYU.
At the same time, the publicly declared value of humanitarian aid donated by the Church includes things like full retail value for quilts and other goods made and donated by Relief Societies, and full hourly wage value for donated volunteer hours. The deception cuts both ways.
Could you please document your accurate sources? If the church keeps no finanacial accounting of its funds how then did you get information about their finances? How could an organization as large as the the LDS church, dealing with millions of dollars of contributions from its members keep no financial record? Every year at the church’s semi-annual conference there is an auditor’s report given to the members. The donations from the members are considered sacred funds and are strictly accouted for at every level of the church. The church strictly balances its budget. Every penny earned from its business ventures is used to finance the programs of the church, including the building of buildings, temples, education, welfare and humanitarian efforts.
It is simply not true that people are starving and freezing to death in Utah because of lack of effort of the LDS church. The church does not encourage giving to panhandlers outside the temple grounds, but helping them in more productive ways. Any person can go to a Mormon bishop and receive help. No one is turned away.
And where does Catholic Charities get much of the food its feeding programs use? From LDS Welfare Square donations. Requests for food from Catholic Charities to LDS Welfare Program are never turned down.
Firstly, it is not the main responsibility of the LDS Church to donate welfare fund to the Catholics. It is the responsibility of the Catholic church leaders to feed their poor members. But, because LDS church leaders also shared the pure love of Christ, they still give donations to any religious or non-religious organizations.
We, LDS church members are not mindful to ask for an accounting of the money we donated because we trusted our church leaders and Heavenly Father knows that we heartily gave our donations for his Son Jesus Christ’s Church.
It’s wonderful that the Catholic church provides such humanitarian aid in Salt Lake.
However, it’s not that the LDS church refuses to help the people on the street. We operate our humanitarian program on the “teach a man to fish” philosophy. We ask for something in return for any aid we give. Such as, getting off any addictive substances, getting mental health help, that sort of thing. Getting job training, education, that sort of thing.
Also, we do offer help to those who pick up the slack, like the RCC. Non-LDS charities can request food and commodities from our Bishop’s storehouses. Up to $1,000 a year.
In actual money, it might seem small. But, we don’t throw money at problems. We don’t beg for donations. We own farms and ranches and orchards. Most of the people who work these farms are volunteers. We also have canneries and bakeries, and dairies, etc., which are also staffed mostly by volunteers. These are shared with other charities. For instance, we own a peanut butter processing plant in Houston TX. We share it with another church. We provide everything but the peanuts. They provide the peanuts. They use it two days a week, and we use it two days a week. (side note: Deseret cheese is just to DIE for!)
And I also mentioned our Bishop’s Storehouses. These are also staffed by volunteers.
And many many of these volunteers are those who are receiving help from the church.
In the west, there is also Deseret Industries. This is just like Goodwill. People donate clothes and other things. Staffing is for helping members gain jobs skills or working to get help from church welfare.
The very best of the clothing donations are saved, sorted, and stored in a warehouse, to be used in times of natural disasters.
I could go on. I did a service mission for our storehouse.
We do not lie.
The “Church of Latter Day Saints” ??? Come on guys that’s not the name of the church. It’s one thing to use a common nick name like “Mormon” but to remove “Jesus Christ” from the name is another act all together. The church to which Mitt Romney gave so much money is know as “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.” By citing its name as the “Church of Latter Day Saints” really under minds you credibility.
the lds church only help there own members and very few of them..they ship junk to disaster areas..the lds church is all about geting money not giving it out..wicked corrupt org….i learned the truth and left the cult just like thousands of others are doing every year
I was once a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and a recipient of such funds during a time of need. During my time there as a member, I not only helped serve and can foods for the hungry, but also assisted on numerous occasions putting care packages together for our troops and disaster relief. I may not agree with everything taught in this faith, but I do know without a doubt the members of this church care about the people in there communities and outside their communities. I could guarantee you without any bias, Mitt Romney will make an outstanding president. He may exercise a different religion, but he still believes that Jesus Christ is our Savior and believes in everything that this country was founded on. The man may not have given a full tithe, but found a way to give in other ways. If you ask me, it was smart to give stocks. Also, if I could just say, that the financials like any other church are shared with their members just as any other church. Additionally, the church has nothing to do with Romney becoming president. You could be poor and and be a genius president.
Well I will say I love the church members and have battled smoking and did stop to get baptized. I started back up mind you I only spend 3 dollars a week on them. I’m a full time college student (going for law school) and recently got a full time job (70hours a week) and were raising 4 young children. Was just trolls by my husband we don’t (refused) get help from the bishops store because of the 3$ habit. That broke my heart, I just got my first check from returning back too work and had the money ready to be sent in (even tho it could be applied to past over due bills) I was filling our the paper for help with the storehouse when my husband informed me of not getting any help, I tore the form up now I’m really thinking about keeping the tithing for needed diapers and formula.just guess that they (the lds) have turned their backs on us.
Sorry for all the typos, used my phone to write that
well i sneak across the border and came to utah.i get to work on elberta farms by the town of elberta .they give me a room in a grainery to live in and a bed from there deseret industrys store and a few other things..i get paid 400.oo dallers every month but i dont pay tax i am paid cash..my friend lives with me..we came from mexico so when cops or border patrol come round we have to hide..but we doing better than in mexico..we cook big pot of freehollies every other day ..the boss tell us we shoud go to the church but we cathalic not mooman.he say pay the money to da church but no we save to take home to family in mexico
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