X-Message-Number: 9207
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 03:46:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #9199 - #9202

On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, L Hardy wrote:


> Then tell me about the many hundreds of thousands of (over 400,000 in the USA 
alone)

> churches that don't pay taxes at all and have assets tied up perpetually.  
Does the
> government laws affect these?  Only if they are corporations...

To qualify as a church for tax purposes, you must meet very specific IRS
guidelines (for example, you must hold regular services). The IRS has a
natural interest in preventing tax evasion by amateurs, as should be
obvious. Why do you imagine you can circumvent the IRS so easily? 


> he doesn't write it after, but writes an instrument or contract before.  We 
are not

> talking about mans law here, mans laws don't apply... when you invoke Gods 
law.

Please suggest precisely how "God's law" should be written into trust 
documents. Do I simply state "I hereby demand that this money should be 
held in a perpetual trust and should be tax exempt, under God's law," and 
that takes care of it? Can I avoid paying income taxes this way, too? Do 
*you* avoid paying taxes in this way? Will the Prometheus Project (for 
which you serve as a lay attorney, as I understand it) also avoid paying 
taxes using this cunning technique? Should the people who have pledged 
money to the Prometheus Project feel confident that your legal advice is 
based on actual experience and case law? Or are you just making stuff up 
as you go along?


> Is there any way you can insure that your money will still be there?  I think 
not.

Two states in the USA allow perpetual trusts. Such documents have been
written, and satisfy statutes, which I tend to have more faith in than the
supposed Law of God, which is presumably open to some interpretation and
debate. Also, of course, Liechtenstein will set up a perpetual trust that
is free from most forms of US taxation. How do you know that
Liechtenstein's bankers won't seize the money and spend it? Because the
country depends largely on the reputation of its banking system, for its
survival. Again, I would rather rely on this than the invocation of a 
deity. 

> And, you should know that a trust agreement can be written by any two parties

> without an attorney, that is completly lawful, and they can use any avaliable 
law

> they choose in its formation, so long as the law that is being used is 
described in

> its corpus.  At present, and until proven otherwise, Gods law is the highest 
law of
> our land, the higher courts have up held this to date.

Cites, please?

--CP

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