It still amazes me that Rawat gets governmnet money in the UK. When you say "tax break income," is that a tax deduction, or is it that donations are not taxed, or is it that the government actually forks over money to EV?It's too complicated to explain easily, especially if you're someone like me who believes that 'government money' is really my money donated for the common good, but essentially their 'Income' is topped up by a certain percentage by the UK taxpayer.
Here's a post which NikW made to Andries on the same subject, which you may have missed.
Not strange in the context of legal provisions going back 500 years. The present laws are based on the proposition that 'charity' is essentially a public benefit and the State therefore has a duty to support 'Charities'. Once an organisation has 'qualified' as having charitable purpose, it has to behave pretty corruptly to lose that status and only happens very rarely - in fact there are systems of support that are designed to bring a charity into legal function, rather than close it down.
As a system the UK treatment of charities has much to recommend it - however it is based on a degree of naivite and certainly needs a major upgrade to deal with global players like Elan Vital.
I have the same difficulty in understanding Rawat's Church status in the US,but the people who set up this International Organisation clearly didn't.
