Charity

[owls84]

Ok, lets tackle this one. Recently all the Lodges in Texas received an exemption from ad volerum taxes. As part of this tax we are told that we must keep a record of of our "Charitable" work. I have put so much thought into this since I was told we were getting this exemption. My problem with this is we are having to go around and call ourselves s "Non-Profit Charitable Organization". I just think this leaves the wrong impression.

The way I look at it is we are dealing with taxes and who overseas taxes? The IRS.

Look at the what the IRS classifies a 501(c)(10)

History of the Statute
Section 501(c)(10) was added to the Internal Revenue Code by the Tax Reform Act of 1969, Pub. L. No. 91-172, section 121(b)(5)(A) (1969), 83 Stat. 487, 541. Prior to that, there was no exemption provided for fraternal societies operating under the lodge system that did not, in addition to their fraternal activities, also provide for the payment of life sick, and accident benefits to their members.
The Senate Committee on Finance explained the purpose of IRC 501(c)(10) as follows:
[A] new category of exemption for fraternal beneficiary associations is set forth which applies to fraternal organizations operating under the lodge system where the fraternal activities are exclusively religious, charitable, or educational in nature and no insurance is provided for the members. The committee believes that it is appropriate to provide a separate exempt category for those fraternal beneficiary associations (such as the Masons) which do not provide insurance for their members. This more properly describes the different types of fraternal associations. S. Rep. No. 552, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 72 (1969).
Basic Requirements Under IRC 501(c)(10)
In its current form, IRC 501(c)(10) describes domestic fraternal societies, orders, or associations that:
•Operate under the lodge system,
•Devote their net earnings exclusively to religious, charitable, scientific, literary, educational, and fraternal purposes, and
•Do not provide for the payment of life, sick, accident, or other benefits. Click and go to page 13

No where does it say we are a Charitable Organization. Our Grand Lodge Laws state we are "Charitable in Nature" but this could cover so much and I think the word "Charitable" is being lost. Remember an act of charity could be opening up a door for someone or giving someone a smile that is having a bad day.

I read a quote today that says "Charity helps the need not the problem" and if you think about it this is true in a way. As Masons you spend so much time teaching the lessons to other men. Are these too not charitable acts? Does the time we spend in fellowship not count? Sometimes all someone needs is an attentive ear to listen to the words he is speaking to feel better, how does one record this? The problem I have is at some point we should be able to say, "The IRS recognizes us as being a 501(c)(10) so we should be tax exempt based on that." EVERYTHING we do meets the definition of being charitable. I am worried that if we continue to mandate a charity form charity itself will loose its meaning. I just have a bad feeling about having to slap a dollar amount on what I do or to get credit for something I don't want credit for. Charity to me is best when no one knows.

 

[Ashton Lawson]

Let's just look at it line by line.

Basic Requirements Under IRC 501(c)(10)
In its current form, IRC 501(c)(10) describes domestic fraternal societies, orders, or associations that:
•Operate under the lodge system,

Clearly we do, as without a charter from Grand Lodge, there is no operation allowed. We are very clearly organized and operating under a lodge system, and we only allow our membership to fraternize with those recognized as regular, thus upholding the fraternal model.

•Devote their net earnings exclusively to religious, charitable, scientific, literary, educational, and fraternal purposes, and

We meet every aspect of this definition. We encourage the pursuit of individual religious knowledge, Pour money into and teach charity as one of our great principles, encourage scientific learning (FC), encourage research into literature and the history of Masonry in the world, emphasize support of the public schools and educational endeavours that better mankind, and clearly we are a fraternally purposed organization when one of our principal tenets is Brotherly love, and another is relief.

•Do not provide for the payment of life, sick, accident, or other benefits.

We aren't the Woodmen of the World as far as I am aware.

I've heard a great deal of fuss about this issue in terms of "keeping our tax-exemption" but quite frankly, the only way I see us possibly losing it is if the law is changed. We clearly meet the Federal IRS requirements.

 

[rhitland]

yea but for the record this charity log is for the tax exemtion of ad-valurem which is state level not the IRS. I think the comptroller watches us on this issue inot the IRS. And the only thing that can be threatened is to have to pay ad-valurem again not sure if that would apply to the whole frat or just the lodge that does not do the form. Losing the 5013c10 status is another league of watch dogs. Although I do take the point of the post, I fear we could easily become a charity machine as the IRS defines charity not as Freemasonry does.

 

[owls84]

But this is the catch 22 on this issue. We have a fraternal obligation to perfom charlitable actions but as we define them they are acts of charity and sometimes can not be recorded or documented. Then we have a state requirement that is casusing us to keep this record and the fact is no one knows for sure what is going to be required by each appraisal district since it sounds like once this one expires it will be left up to the appraisal district to extend the exemption. So it goes from a federal to state to municipal item? Just seems odd to me.

 

[rhitland]

catch 22 it may be but I myself feel certian we have the best minds in Masonry going down the wrong rabbit hole chasing these tax exemptions. As Tom alluded in his statment to the DDGM money is not our problem it is a symptom of the true problem.

 

[Wingnut]

Paying out thousands of dollars for ad valorum taxes is, well, taxing the lodges heavily. Where I have a problem is we are now saying CHARITY is dontating time or money to some institutional 'charity' when the REAL meaning of the word when Masonry started was AGAPE or Love...