WASHINGTON — United Churches of Florida, the Scientology front group established in Clearwater in November 1975, was designed to be a tax shelter that could launder sect revenue nationwide, top-secret Scientology documents show. Sect founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in September 1975 that United Churches was being created "to preserve the assets of Scientology . . . in case of a total wipeout of the Church of Scientology by IRS." The secret correspondence between Hubbard and highest-level Scientology "Guardians" show that ...

Because they don't have to file annual financial reports with the IRS, unscrupulous sects can — and do — ignore the law with impunity. Let's close this tax loophole HOW CULTS BILK ALL OF US SOME THREE MILLION AMERICANS have joined cult churches in the last decade, a phenomenon attributed to everything from the breakdown of the family to loss of faith in traditional institutions. One thing is certain: these cults could not have experienced their spectacular rise to wealth and ...

The Church of Scientology contends that for more than 20 years it has been the target of a systematic campaign by the United States government, together with "vested-interest pressure groups" such as the medical professions, to "suppress the church's spiritual practice and expansion." The church advances this accusation as the fundamental rationale for its aggressive policies of defense-by-attack against individual critics, private groups and government agencies perceived as "harassing" Scientology. Church spokesmen, moreover, expand upon the allegation of systematic persecution to ...