Time : 10.30am
Con't 4 Church of Scientology detail.
United States
In 1979 Hubbard's wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, along with ten other highly placed Scientology executives were convicted in United States federal court regarding Operation Snow White, and served time in an American federal prison. Operation Snow White involved infiltration, wiretapping and theft of documents in government offices, most notably those of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
In 1993, however, the United States IRS recognized Scientology as a "non-profit charitable organization," and gave it the same legal protections and favorable tax treatment extended to other non-profit charitable organizations.[127] A New York Times article says that Scientologists paid private investigators to obtain compromising material on the IRS commissioner and blackmailed the IRS into submission.[128]
The following action will be considered to be a material breach by the service:.... The issuance of a Regulation, Revenue Ruling or other pronouncement of general applicability providing that fixed donation to a religious organization other than a church of scientology are fully deductible unless the service has issued previously or issues contemporaneously a similar pronouncement that provides for consistent and uniform principles for determining the deductibility of fixed donations for all churches includeing the church of scientology.
In a 2001 legal case involving a married couple attempting to obtain the same deduction for charity to a Jewish school, it was stated by Judge Silverman:[129]
An IRS Closing agreement cannot overrule congress and the supreme court. If the IRS does, in fact, give preferential treatment to member of the church of scientology-allowing them a special right to claim deduction that are contrarty to law and rightly disallowed to everybody else - then the proper course of action is a lawsiut to put a stop to that policay.
To date (2008) such a suit is not known to have been filed. In further appeal in 2006, the US Tax Court again rejected couple's deduction, stating:
We conclude that the agreement reach between the Internal Revenue Service and the Church of Scientology
in 1993 does not affect the result in this case.
However, this matter is still ongoing. On February 8, 2008, three judges in the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals "expressed deep skepticism" over the IRS's position that treatment of Scientology is "irrelevant to the deductions the Orthodox Jews, Michael and Marla Sklar, took for part of their children's day school tuition and for after-school classes in Jewish law".[131]
Churches, missions, and major Scientology centers
Scientology organizations and missions exist in many communities around the world.[132] Scientologists call their larger centers orgs, short for "organizations." The major Scientology organization of a region is known as a central org. The legal address of the Church of Scientology International is in Los Angeles, California, 6331 Hollywood Blvd, in the Hollywood Guaranty Building. The Church of Scientology also has several major headquarters, including:Saint Hill, Sussex, England
L. Ron Hubbard moved to England shortly after founding Scientology, where he oversaw the worldwide development of Scientology from an office in London for most of the 1950s. In 1959, he bought Saint Hill Manor near the Sussex town of East Grinstead, a Georgian manor house formerly owned by the Maharajah of Jaipur. This became the worldwide headquarters of Scientology through the 1960s and 1970s. Hubbard declared Saint Hill to be the organization by which all other organizations would be measured, and he issued a general order (still followed today) for all organizations around the world to expand and reach "Saint Hill size". The Church of Scientology has announced that the next two levels of Scientology teaching, OT 9 and OT 10, will be released and made available to church members when all the major orgs in the world have reached Saint Hill size.
Flag Land Base, Clearwater, Florida
The "worldwide spiritual headquarters" of the Church of Scientology is known as "Flag Land Base," located in Clearwater, Florida. It is operated by the Floridian corporation Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, Inc..
The organization was founded in the late 1970s when a Scientology-founded group called "Southern Land Development and Leasing Corp" purchased the Fort Harrison Hotel for $2.3 million. Because the reported tenant was the "United Churches of Florida" the citizens and City Council of Clearwater did not realize that the building's owners were actually the Church of Scientology until after the building's purchase.[133] Clearwater citizens' groups, headed by Mayor Gabriel Cazares, rallied strongly against Scientology establishing a base in the city (repeatedly referring to the organization as a cult), but Flag Base was established nonetheless.[134]
In the years since its foundation, Flag Base has expanded as the Church of Scientology has gradually purchased large amounts of additional property in the downtown and waterfront Clearwater area. Scientology's relationship with the city government has repeatedly moved between friendly and hostile. At the same time, it opposed the local St. Petersburg Times and protested actions of the Clearwater police department. Scientology's largest project in Clearwater has been the construction of a high-rise complex called the "Super Power Building," an enormous structure whose highest point, when completed, will be a Scientology cross that will tower over the city.
PAC Base, Hollywood, California
Los Angeles, California has the largest concentration of Scientologists and Scientology-related enterprises in the world. Scientology has established a highly visible presence in the Hollywood district of the city. The organization owns a large complex on Fountain Avenue which was formerly Cedars of Lebanon hospital. It contains Scientology's West Coast headquarters, "Pacific Area Command Base," often referred to as "PAC Base". Adjacent buildings include headquarters of many of Scientology's internal divisions, including the "American Saint Hill Organization", the "Advanced Organization of Los Angeles" and the "Church of Scientology of Los Angeles", founded February 18, 1954. All these organizations are integrated within the corporation Church of Scientology Western United States. Also in this area are the offices of Bridge Publications, Scientology's publishing arm for the United States and Canada.
The Church of Scientology successfully campaigned to have the city of Los Angeles rename one block of a street running through this complex "L. Ron Hubbard Way." The street has been paved in brick.
Also in Hollywood is Scientology's main Celebrity Centre, which caters to arts professionals. On Hollywood Boulevard a multi-story building houses the executive offices of the Church of Scientology International and an open-to-the-public exhibition devoted to the life of L. Ron Hubbard. Also in the area are the headquarters of Author Services, Inc. (Hubbard's Literary agency), the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE), which administers social programs based on Hubbard's writings, (including Narconon and Applied Scholastics), the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE), which promotes Hubbard's business management techniques and facilitates a network of Scientology-related businesses, and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a Scientology-affiliated group that focuses on alleged abuses of psychiatry, and includes a "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" museum.
Today, the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles is one of the largest Scientology facilities of its kind in the world. Executives-in-training from every international Scientology organization now apprentice at the LA church before assuming their executive positions.
Gold Base, Riverside County, California
The headquarters of the Religious Technology Center, the entity that oversees Scientology operations worldwide, is located in unincorporated Riverside County, California, near Gilman Hot Springs and north of Hemet.[135] The facility, known as Gold Base or "Int", is owned by Golden Era Productions and is the home of Scientology's media production studio, Golden Era Studios. Several Scientology executives, including David Miscavige, live and work at the base.[136] Therefore Gold Base is Scientology's international administrative headquarters.[137][138][139][140]
The Church of Scientology bought a former resort, which had been popular with Hollywood figures, in 1978; the resort became Gold Base.[141] The facilities at Gold Base have been toured by journalists several times. They are surrounded by floodlights and video observation cameras,[136][142][143][144] and the compound is protected by razor wire.[145] Gold Base also has recreational facilities, including basketball, volleyball, and soccer facilities, an exercise building, a waterslide, a small lake with two beaches, and a golf course.[146]
1. Saint Hill Manor 2. Flag Land Base 3. PAC Base 4. Gold Base 5. Trementina Base 6. Flag ship, Freewinds
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