"kirkguardian" <kirkguardian[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

Abuse of the "corporation sole" is just one in a long line
of dishonest schemes to separate fools from their money. See
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/...121566,00.html for
the word from the horse's mouth.

A corporation sole is a device allowed in some states for
assuring continuity of ownership of the property of a bona
fide religious organization. It is not a device useful in
supporting the fraud that a private person or a business is
a nonprofit organization; in fact, in the current
enforcement climate, the very existence of a corporation
sole not associated with a well-known church is a huge red
flag.

Fraudulent "corporation sole" scams are especially prevalent
in Utah and Washington, for some reason or other.

--
Chris Green

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kirkguardian wrote:

- quote -

Hmm--wouldn't happen to be related to John would you? The
two of you have such similar writing styles...

Dick: I think this one is simply a solicitation that is
being spammed to groups <grin> .

--
Ed Zollars, CPA
Phoenix, Arizona

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Personally, as a taxpaying small corporation, I smell
"scam", "fraud", IRS audits, and other nasty consequences.

Seen too many Nevada corporations advertised I guess.....

Nan, EA in LA

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I've seen the corporation sole being promoted on the
internet by dozens of corporate sole sales companies, as a
way of organizing churches and ministries.

The corporate sole salespeople are claiming all kinds of
impressive attributes of the corporation sole, including tax
immunity and asset protection, not only for real churches,
but for just about anything imaginable, like personal assets
and businesses. I've talked to some of these folks and they
say that I could call just about anything I'm doing "a
church," organize a corporation sole, and then I won't have
to pay taxes.

Some of them say that I could conduct my business as a
corporation sole and not have to pay taxes or file returns
of any kind. Others say the way to structure is to have my
business structured as an LLC and owned by a corporation
sole "church." The LLC passes thru its income to the
corporation sole, so it owes no taxes. The corporation sole
supposedly doesn't have to file any tax returns because it's
a "church."

Some have told me that I should take an "oath of poverty" so
I don't have to pay any personal taxes. Supposedly the
corporation sole can pay all my personal bills for me and
even pay my kids' college tuition.

They say that all I need to do to organize a corporation
sole church is to believe in God and have a desire to serve
Him. In one case I asked the guy, "But what if I were an
atheist?" He said, "Well, I guess atheism is a religion too,
so that would be OK." "So Who then would I be serving?" No
response. They all seem to be in agreement that the
government can't define what a church is so, therefore, they
get to define "church" pretty much any way they want to.
Somehow that just doesn't make sense to me.

I've only found one web site that gives any contrary
information on the corporation sole and it's at
http://hushmoney.org/corporation-sole_myths.htm

All the other web sites seem very positive and upbeat about
the corporation sole. But I'm concerned that not everything
I've been told by the corporation sole salespeople may be
true, and that if I use the corporation sole it might get me
into serious trouble with the IRS.

Do you folks have any knowledge of the corporation sole,
what it can be legitimately used for, and what the tax
consequences of it are?

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