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[LiK]

http://abcnews.com.co/united-states-revokes-scientologys-tax-exempt-status/

In a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court today, the eight justices ruled in favor of revoking the Church of Scientology’s tax-exempt status in the United States. Under the ruling, Scientology will still be able to operate as a business but no longer as a non-profit religious organization.

The case was brought forward by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division after concluding a two-year-long investigation into the inner workings of Scientology. The investigation, along with an extensive audit, found the group to be a “criminal operation with a sole purpose of making money”. The eight justices agreed with the IRS and its findings that Scientology was neither a religion or fell under the guidelines of a non-profit charitable organization.

CI Special Agent, Tom Downey, worked closely with IRS Chief Counsel Criminal Tax Attorneys during the course of the investigation.

“If private schools had similar prices to the courses in Scientology, students would receive the absolute highest level of education by the top educators in the country,” Downey said. “But in reality, based on the ridiculously high cost of Scientology, there is no school out there that even exists. The best schools in this country charge a fraction of the exorbitant amounts of money that Scientology charges its members.”

Paul Horner, a spokesperson for Scientology, told ABC News the ruling is “discrimination based on religious beliefs”.

 

[HUELEN10]

I call bullshit... Because this undermines an alleged group of believers when a similar argument could be made even of some specific profiteering Christian sects (posing as non-profit).

What they should do instead is remove tax exempt status from all churches/synagogue/etc.

Also, not a real article.

 

[Mac the KNife]

travolta.gif.

 

[kris.]

holy shit, this is big!

and awesome.

 

[jon bones]

holy shit it finally happened

 

[chadskin]

Woah, that's excellent news.

 

[gutshot]

Awesome news.

 

[echoshifting]

Wow, never thought I'd live to see the day

 

[alr1ght]

Amazing news.

 

[IronRinn]

Edit: God damn it, this is the fake ABC news thing.

 

[SenorArdilla]

 

[Oppo]

oh shit. this is huge!

I heard their membership has radically dwindled, I wonder if this will be an immediate death blow to the org. or if they will pivot somehow. they have a lot of real estate.

I also wonder how the US Government has decided to forestall the tactics what got Scientology the the tax status in the first place (a massive coordinated letter writing and legal harassment campaign that tied up the courts). hope they are ready for that again.

 

[Gattsu25]

Had to double check the source just to be sure. Great news.

 

[TheAbsolution]

Damn. Never thought I'd see the day.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Hopefully, this ruling will be applied to other religious businesses.

 

[Nokterian]

Fantastic news also they write the whole damn thing about xenu on that page pretty hilarious.

 

[No Love]

Some of 2016's best news. Fuck you, Scientology. Any place that has their HQ in Hemet is obviously evil.

 

[shira]

Hollywood actors gonna drop this shit like it's burning coals.

 

[SneakySneaks]

That is the fakest website of all time. I wish it was true, but the url is not for ABC News.

 

[Schrade]

Wow, this is awesome.

 

[Vestal]

ABOUT FUCKING TIME

 

[Straight Edge]

Awesome. Exposed as the frauds they are. Now apply the same ruling to megachurches.

 

[Cagey]

I'm floored this actually happened.

 

[CharminUltra]

Dayum

 

[Elginer]

 

[rjinaz]

Well yeah. There should be some kind of level or cutoff on the amount of money a religious organization brings in before they can stop qualifying really.

 

[fallengorn]

Guys, check the url...

 

[Flo_Evans]

hahaha. Go after televangelists next.