Testimony of Robert L. Grete such taxes from "church" organizations. Although independent Christian schools such as RBCS have religious ministries identical to those of parochial schools, this St. Martin decision did not extend to independent Christian schools. The Supreme Court decided to leave the status of Christ's schools organized differently for a future day. Consequently, parochial schools no longer have this hassle, but independent Christian schools (approximately 30 percent of the Christian schools in America) must continue to endure this harrassment. A case involving an independent Christian school is now in progress in Oregon. Should the Supreme Court uphold our position in that case, then I assume the State of Florida will stop sending us bills such as the one at ATCH 4. If the Supreme Court finds against us, it will be further progress along the road to the annihilation of religious ministries not organized in accordance with government specifications. In an Similar issues are raised by the Social Security Amendments of 1983. effort to bail out the bankrupt system through increased tax revenues from extended coverage, Congress voted to include religious organizations in the Social Security system. In December, 1983, the Senate Finance Committee held hearings on this issue. Rather than concluding that religious ministries are not taxable (as the First Amendment requires), the Committee agreed on language which would pass the tax obligation of employees of "church" organizations from the ministry (institution) to the employee directly. This, it is believed, avoids the First Amendment issue caused by laying a direct tax on a church. The language to effect this change was incorporated in the Tax Reduction Act of 1984, which I now understand has been sent to the President for signature. If signed into law, the option given to church organizations may forestall some litigation by such ministries. The law, however, will not at all relieve RBCS and similar independent schools from the obligation to pay a direct tax to the federal government. The word "church" is not found in the First Amendment. In Testimony of Robert L. Grete light of the fact that the First Amendment religious clauses use the expressions "establishment of religion" and "the free exercise thereof," confining unencumbered religious activity to churches or any other organizations prescribed by the federal government is obviously discriminatory and a direct violation of the First Amendment. I attach my letter to Senator Dole of 5 December 1983 (ATCH 5), which points out the difficulty caused by certain language included in several public laws that produce this discrimination. Attached to that letter is also a document explaining the biblical and constitutional objections RBCS has to any government taxation that permits controls over religious ministries. I believe the details in that correspondence are sufficient to completely illuminate our concerns in this area. I realize that I am now in the position, even after passage of the Tax Reduction Act of 1984, of being jailed and heavily fined for failing to pay our institution's share of this unconstitutional tax. I would pray that the Congress would see the catastrophic effects that coercive inclusion of religious ministries in the Social Security system can have on our country. The above specific cases of our confrontation with the federal govenment is a rather mild sampling of the handicaps that government action have placed on Christian schools when viewed from a national point of view. Nevertheless, they are sufficient to demonstrate that religious liberty is at great peril in our country. I thank you for this opportunity to express an independent Christian School administrator's perspective on the threat to religious liberty in America today. As we drift further away from the divine Author of liberty, the foundation for liberty is eroded. Liberty authored by autonomous man inevitably degenerates into tyranny. In accordance with the spirit of your article, "Helping the CLA to Help You," in the November Defender, I enclose the facts of a problem RBCS expects to have with the IRS. The most dangerous aspect is that IRS unilaterally revised our exemption in a way that implies RBCS must begin paying social security and unemployment taxes, which, of course, we will not do. To assist your analysis, I provide the following facts and supporting documents. Please advise if you need anything else to complete our file. On 12 June 1973 (as a Christian Air Force officer and Elder, Forest Lake Bible Church) I accompanied my Pastor (Harold E. Thomas) to visit Bob Thoburn's Fairfax Christian School in Fairfax, Virginia. It was there I realized that I could not use the government schools to educate my six children, but was, of course, very ignorant of the details of the philosophy of Christian education and the increasing state animosity toward Christian schools. We reported the findings of our visit to the Joint Board of our relatively new and small church, which voted not to establish a Christian school because it would excessively dilute efforts to perform other necessary operations. I asked if there were any objections to individual members beginning an independent Christian school; there were no objections. God led us, on 3 July 1973, to commit ourselves to establishing RBCS. Although on active duty, I accepted the responsibility of Director and using Bob Thoburn's manual and advice from a local "Christian" lawyer, began laying the school's foundation. We opened that September with 22 students, grades four-year-old kindergarten through six, two full-time teachers (Mrs. Grete and Mrs. Thomas) and two part-time teachers. now have 200 students. We I was advised that we must write a Corporate Charter (Atch 1), Bylaws (Atch 2), and obtain Federal and State Tax Exemption Letters to legally operate as a tax-exempt corporation not-for-profit. I followed applicaon procedures to obtain our original Federal Tax Exemption Letter uted October 21, 1974 (Atch 3), which directed us to file IRS Forms 990. lease forgive my continuing ignorance of the issues, but this we dutifully d. In December 1976, the Air Force sent me on a one-year remote tour o Korea. While there, I continued to study and learn more about Christian education. In summer 1977, the school office filed our FY 77 Form 990, which IRS apparently lost in a shuffle between their Atlanta and Philadelphia offices. We were advised by IRS letters dated May 19 and June 23, 1978, (Atch 4) that IRS did not have our FY 77 form. them a reaccomplished copy dated July 15, 1978 (see remarks, Atch 4). We sent As we were accomplishing our FY 78 Form, we received another IRS letter Mr. Samra dated October 19, 1978 (Atch 5), stating that IRS could not d our FY 77 Form 990. At this point, I began to question the propriety our filling out the Form 990, and read the instruction booklet more refully. Since the language of the instructions specifically exempts schools below college level operated by a religious order," I replied to Mr. Samra's October 19 letter with mine dated 6 November 1979, presenting rationale for the position that we should not file Form 990 (Atch 6). I did, however, include our reaccomplished FY 77 and new FY 78 forms. I heard nothing for two months. On 15 January 1979, I queried Mr. Samra on his progress in getting an answer to my question of 6 November, i.e. "Why must RBCS file annual Form 990?" (Atch 7). He responded on 7 February 1979, that he could not find my 6 November 1978 letter (although he apparently had the Forms 990 under control), and that he was forwarding my request to the Jacksonville, Florida, office (Atch 8). To facilitate the Jacksonville office's work, I indorsed Mr. Samra's letter and forwarded a copy of my 6 November 1978 letter on 13 February 1979 (Atch 8). 27 February 1979 is an interesting day in this case. On that day, Maye Harper of the Atlanta IRS office wrote that she had just received y 6 November 1978 letter to Mr. Samra. She explained how our forms may ave been lost, and advised that she sent the 6 November letter to Jacksonville for reply (Atch 9). (I was so pleased with the helpfulness of her response that I wrote her a letter of thanks on 20 April to which she responded on 3 May. This correspondence is also at Atch 9.) Also on 27 February, Ms. G. Farley (signed Withers) of the Jacksonville office sent a classic piece of bureaucratic garbage brushing off my question and giving us 60 days to file amendments to our charter since they had no record of them in their file (Atch 10). (Their own copy of our exemption letter, however, indicated that our file had been checked OK after our amendments had been received - see Atch 3.) I believe this is a case of harrassment. To understand what follows, I must relate something I subsequently overed: Jacksonville had two separate working files on RBCS with two rate case officers (Ms. Farley and Mrs. Dewey) who didn't know what other was doing. : 19 April 1979, I responded to Ms. Farley's February 27 letter il), asking her to give à serious answer to my question (she hadn't even seen my 6 November letter), and providing additional copies of the amendments missing from her file. On 25 April 1979 I received a phone call from Mrs. Dewey (see MFR at Atch 12), saying she just received my 6 November letter (probably the one sent by Maye Harper). After cordially discussing First Amendment issues, she said she would get with Ms. Farley to give me an official response. On 7 May, I received a very hostile call from Ms. Farley, who had received my 19 April letter but had neither spoken to Mrs. Dewey nor read the rationale in my 6 November letter (see MFR at Atch 13). Before hanging up on me, she said she would leave it to Mrs. Dewey to respond to my question. On 8 June 1979, Mrs. Dewey provided the IRS response to my question (Atch 14). She quoted two lower court cases which I do not believe are relevant to my argument. At issue in her argument is the definition of a church. I prefer that of Scripture: IRS does not. Her bottom line is that since our exemption letter of 21 October 1974 indicates RBCS is a school, we must file the 990. I took no action to respond to this since I was too busy with other things. The shocker came when I received from D. Warnick (Jacksonville) an unsigned determination letter modifying our original 21 October 1974 letter (Atch 15). My comparison indicates that the revision imposes on RBCS the unlawful and unconstitutional requirements to collect social security and federal unemployment compensation taxes. It reaffirmed our obligation to file the 990. I do not consider the unsigned revision authoritative. I do consider it unlawful harrassment. On 13 November 1979 I filed our FY 79 Form 990 covered by a letter reaffirming my conviction that IRS errs in asking us to file it (Atch 16). and responding to Dewey's 8 June 1979 answer to previous correspondence. Please see the letter for the exact language, but my bottom line is that IRS does not have constitutional authority to interfere with religious ministries either through tax laws or subversive definitions. I asked if it were the IRS position that Biblical definitions are to be rejected in favor of those of IRS's own making, and again appealed for a finding hat we are not liable to file the Form 990. I have not yet received a direct response to my 13 November 1979 ter, but did recieve an IRS form letter dated December 17, 1979. knowledging receipt of my FY 79 Form 990, and instructing me to provide aditional information (Atch 17). In my original return, I inadvertently did not check a Part V block indicating the Reason for Non-Private Tourdation Status, and also missed the requirement to fill out Part VI. Since their request for additional information only requires a check in Part V, block 2, (they sent no form with Part VI) that is all that I ending them at this time. I hope to hear from you before I hear from IRS again. Request You advise me: 1. 2. What action should RBCS take in response to the revised Should I respond to any more requests for Form 990 3. Where should I go from here in the effort to get IRS to I praise God for your ministry. LG: 1h Attachments In Christ's service, Robert I.. Grete |