tithing shake down (settlement)

[Unendowed]

I was handed a donations statement last Sunday of all my donations to LDS inc. For various family reasons my wife feels the need to maintain a temple recommend even though we are both non-believers. I've been paying what I have determined to be a fair tithing for the past year using my bank's bill pay directly to church HQ. I can verify that these donations are NOT showing up on my statement from the ward see and, presumably, the bishop cannot see it either. They do show up on my LDS.org account for tax purposes though. I felt it may be helpful to others who may be in a similar situation to describe the process of making confidential donations.

The process is pretty simple, you send an email to donations@ldschurch.org and request to make payment through your banks bill pay. In the email also provide your membership number and you MUST state that you want your payments to be confidential. The church will reply to your email with specific instructions on how to set up your bill pay. Follow the instructions and you are good to go. I get an email every month that shows my donations but my ward never sees it. In tithing settlement you can tell the bishop you are a full or part tithe payer (whatever you feel comfortable with). If questioned, you just explain that you pay directly the SL, he's really not supposed to dig any deeper.

I despise the whole idea of tithing settlement and this is a way of navigating through it to keep the peace at home. Hopefully it can help someone.

[Korihor]

Does it show "$0" or "N/A"

I know what mine shows - "$0"
and that is accurate.

[Mormorrisey]

I'm toying with the idea of telling my bishop that when the church is comfortable releasing its corporate financial information to one of its shareholders, I'll release mine to them. And until that happens, tithing settlement is a no go. I don't think it will end well on the homefront, but it's worth a shot.

[glass shelf]

We did this for years when we were active, full-tithe payers because I think the process of tithing settlement is none of my neighbor's business!

Ours always showed $0. A couple of bishops asked me how I'd set it up, and one BP asked me if I could show other people in the branch we lived in then how to do it so they could get out of counting most weeks.

Only one bishop was adamant that I should be doing it a different way at which point, I told him that tithing was between me and God, and I was done talking about it. Seriously, who chews someone out for making an anonymous donation in front of their children? Someone on a crazy powertrip.

[wtfluff]

I'm toying with the idea of telling my bishop that when the church is comfortable releasing its corporate financial information to one of its shareholders, I'll release mine to them. And until that happens, tithing settlement is a no go. I don't think it will end well on the homefront, but it's worth a shot.

Well now... If anything related to Tithing Shakedown comes to light in the Fluffy household this year, I WILL bring up Corporation of the President™ financial transparency. More weight on shelves can't hurt, can it?

[Unendowed]

Does it show "$0" or "N/A"

I know what mine shows - "$0"
and that is accurate.

It shows nothing at all for my bill pay donations. I've made some fast offering donations to the ward the standard way and those are on the statement the ward gave me but that's all there is. If I pull up my donations statement on LDS.org it looks identical except my tithing does appear. Maybe the bishop has a way to see all donations but I doubt it. There are plenty of high salary members who would like to keep there donations private The church has got to accommodate.

[Red Ryder]

You can actually make the change yourself. No email required.

Log in to LDS.org

Go here: https://www.lds.org/donations/#/settings

Check this box: My financial statements do not need to be printed by my Ward.

I've heard you do have to enter a valid email address though.

[Unendowed]

You can actually make the change yourself. No email required.

Log in to LDS.org

Go here: https://www.lds.org/donations/#/settings

Check this box: My financial statements do not need to be printed by my Ward.

I've heard you do have to enter a valid email address though.

I don't think that makes your donations confidential, in other words, the bishop can still see what you've donated if he chooses. I think all this does is tell the the clerks you don't need a year to date statement prior to tithing settlement and a year end statement for taxes.

[Red Ryder]

To be honest, I don't really know. I just copied that from reddit.

[GoodBoy]

Go here: https://www.lds.org/donations/#/settings

I just went to this website for the first time. It has 10 years worth of donation records.... Aaand, I had a good cry.

It shows my donation history dropped like a rock though. I can see exactly when I had my faith crisis.

I did a quick calculation of the tithing that I probably would have paid out to the end of my life... Wow. That is a lot of money! No wonder the church is upset when it loses faithful members.

[Pharmerswife]

I don't know how much we paid over the years of being active, but if I find out I would cry.
All I can say though is I'm extremely happy that we found out about the church during student loan years before we started making money. I would probably cry a long river if we paid tithing what we make now.

My step-grandma (Grandpa married her a couple years before I was born, so I was raised knowing her). My grandpa and her are catholic. A year before she passed, she went on a cruise with her children, right before the cruise she gave both each $10,000. One blew his $10,000 on the cruise in the casino within 4 days. The other went on a trip to Africa when they got back from their cruise. Step-Grandma was disappointed that one blew his money all on the curse in 4 days. She was a little disappointed in the daughter for not investing in it and taking a trip instead. She was hoping they both would invest it. A couple months before she passed, she changed her will and decided instead of giving her kids another $10,000 while she was living. She gave their share to the catholic church. So this Catholic priest in a small town that about 20 people attend, made $20,000 in one day.

[Silver Girl]

I don't know how much we paid over the years of being active, but if I find out I would cry.
All I can say though is I'm extremely happy that we found out about the church during student loan years before we started making money. I would probably cry a long river if we paid tithing what we make now.

My step-grandma (Grandpa married her a couple years before I was born, so I was raised knowing her). My grandpa and her are catholic. A year before she passed, she went on a cruise with her children, right before the cruise she gave both each $10,000. One blew his $10,000 on the cruise in the casino within 4 days. The other went on a trip to Africa when they got back from their cruise. Step-Grandma was disappointed that one blew his money all on the curse in 4 days. She was a little disappointed in the daughter for not investing in it and taking a trip instead. She was hoping they both would invest it. A couple months before she passed, she changed her will and decided instead of giving her kids another $10,000 while she was living. She gave their share to the catholic church. So this Catholic priest in a small town that about 20 people attend, made $20,000 in one day.

The mother (and grandmother) of some friends gave several million to the Catholic Church. It came as a complete surprise to the family. No warning at all.

Meanwhile, I am sad to admit I joined the church during some of my peak career years, and I get sick when I think of the total amount.

[w2mz]

Tithing is one of my biggest issues with the church. The ONLY thing that anyone can testify is absolutely true about tithing is that if you pay it, the church has your money and you don't. Period. Anything beyond that is speculation and confirmation bias.

It boils my blood to think about how much money I used to give, and how much money my TBM DW still gives to the church (from my salary, she does not work.) The church has their hooks so deep in her brain that she is terrified to not pay up. She would say it's because she's obedient and faithful, but the fact is she's terrified at the imaginary consequences the church has implanted in her mind of missed blessings and punishment if she doesn't pay.

The church uses tithing as spiritual extortion.

[Mormorrisey]

I made the HUGE mistake today of looking at the last ten years of donations I have made after re-reading this post, and figuring out how to access this information. I nearly wept with the realization I could have paid my house off. Twice.

Not a good day.

[MalcolmVillager]

I am going to set this confidential thing up. I stopped paying earlier this year and DW still wants to. I have convinced her to go on net rather than gross and t retroactively correct that on future payments. Basically we will calculate what we did pay gross and what we should have paid net for the last 10 years and then correct it by underpaying for the next 10 years (if we make it that long).

We could have paid the house off and bought a cabin easily as well, and that makes me sick.

I have not shown her the calculations but she agreed in principle.

[Linked]

Ouch. That is a lot of money that should be in my retirement account.

Tithing is one of my biggest issues with the church. The ONLY thing that anyone can testify is absolutely true about tithing is that if you pay it, the church has your money and you don't. Period. Anything beyond that is speculation and confirmation bias.

It boils my blood to think about how much money I used to give, and how much money my TBM DW still gives to the church (from my salary, she does not work.) The church has their hooks so deep in her brain that she is terrified to not pay up. She would say it's because she's obedient and faithful, but the fact is she's terrified at the imaginary consequences the church has implanted in her mind of missed blessings and punishment if she doesn't pay.

The church uses tithing as spiritual extortion.

Amen. Amen.

[Korihor]

I am going to set this confidential thing up. I stopped paying earlier this year and DW still wants to. I have convinced her to go on net rather than gross and t retroactively correct that on future payments. Basically we will calculate what we did pay gross and what we should have paid net for the last 10 years and then correct it by underpaying for the next 10 years (if we make it that long).

We could have paid the house off and bought a cabin easily as well, and that makes me sick.

I have not shown her the calculations but she agreed in principle.

I made the HUGE mistake today of looking at the last ten years of donations I have made after re-reading this post, and figuring out how to access this information. I nearly wept with the realization I could have paid my house off. Twice.

Not a good day.

I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Ok, a lot a bit.

[Korihor]

Did anyone else see that post on Reddit (sorry, no link) about somewhere outside of the USA the Bishop needs to indicate tithe status online and the SP can't authorize a temple recommend unless it's Full Tithe or Exempt?

Just a new level of control. Anyone heard about this?

[Batman]

I have come to despise tithing settlement. Is there really a need to come in and sit down with the BP to declare your status? What a waste of everyone's time.

This year our ward is giving the year end donation form with a time and date of your assigned meeting for tithing settlement. Of course, if it does not work for your schedule you can change it. Really?! We are now being told when we will come and "settle up?"

Most of this could be taken care of via e-mail if the church was interested in simplicity and letting leadership/clerks have some family time during the holidays. But, we know the church is not about simplicity. And in my view, only pays lip service to family time.

[Mormorrisey]

Did anyone else see that post on Reddit (sorry, no link) about somewhere outside of the USA the Bishop needs to indicate tithe status online and the SP can't authorize a temple recommend unless it's Full Tithe or Exempt?

Just a new level of control. Anyone heard about this?

Yeah, I read that too. They're not even being subtle now, if that information is accurate. I'm sure it will come to light at some point.