Theos-Talk Archives (February 1997 Message tl00372)

At 10:52 AM 2/15/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Christine writes-->
>I was also wondering about the money.  We are very wealthy, but I wonder if
>the bequests which set up our wealth were made to our local Lodge, Theosophy
>in Australia, or International Theosophy.
>
>Richard Ihle writes-->
>Christine's remarks reminded me of something I have always been curious about
>and which someone on the list may know the details of.
>
>I was speaking in Ann Arbor or Detroit or somewhere else in Michigan perhaps
>20 years ago or more.  As I recall it, the meeting place was a beautiful
>rustic-type building with attractive grounds.  Someone told me that a
>prominent Theosophist had left it to the American Section in his will.
>
>Sometime later I inquired about the property and someone told me that the
>Board of Directors had simply decided to ~give it~ to the relatives of the
>deceased person.  It seems a little strange that the Board would have the
>power to dispose of the Section's property with such ease; thus, I wonder if
>this really happened.
>
>Has anyone else heard of anything like this?
>
>Godspeed,
>
>Richard Ihle
>

Very interesting. By law, no non-profit/tax exempt corporation/organization
can give anything of value to any individual especially valuable real
estate. Both the non profit organization and the recipient would have tax
trouble with IRS and also with state tax authorities.

It is quite possible that if right kind of returns were not filed by both
the organization and recipient, the issue may still open and IRS and State
Tax authorities can assess taxes and penalties and interest and also other
actions on the non profit organization. In addition the person who tips off
IRS would get a small share of the taxes they collect. Any IRS agent lurking
in this list?

The only instance I had heard about was long time ago, someone donated some
very valuable property and within a short time he came back and told Mrs.
Besant that he has changed his mind. Besant returned the property. The
elapsed time between the donation and the reversion was very short.

There is also the possibility. When anyone donates anything of value, the
recipient organization may decide not to accept the donation.

Unless we know the full verifiable facts, we cannot determine exactly what
happened.

As a starting poing, someone can go to Ann Arbor or Michigan country court
house and make a search and can track down the property records to see what
exactly took place. Just my thoughts.

MKR


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