Received a response (snail-mail) to an email I sent to Mr.Rudd, I've typed it up for your enjoyment/perusual.

" Dear Mr.Daniels,

Thank you for your email of 17 March 2008, originally directed to the Prime Minister, concerning the taxation concessions available to The Church of Scientology in Australia. Your email has been referred to the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs as he has portfilo responsibility for this matter. The Minister has asked me to respond to you. I aplogise for the delay in responding.

The Government places considerable importance on receiving community views in developing its budget strategies and policies. In particular I note the concerns you have raised in the tax concessions granted to the Church of Scientology.

A charity is an entity established for a public benefet that the law regards as charitable. A charity must be a not-for-profit entity, trust fund or institution that exists for the public benefit, or the relief of poverty. Its sole or dominant purpose must be 'charitable' within the legal sense of the term. Examples of charities include aged persons' homes, homeless hostels and organisations relieving the special needs of people with disabilities, public educational institutions and societies that promote the fine arts. The advancement of religion, in one form or another, has also been a part of charity throughout the history of charity law.

I note your concerns about the definition of a religious organisation that has been adopted by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The factors used in this definition were established by the High Court in The Church of the New Faith v. Comissioner of Pay-Roll Tax (Vic) 83 ATC 4652; (1983) 14 ATR 769 (the Scientology case). In this case the High Court found Scientology to be a religion. Since then, the 2001 Report of the Inquiry into the Definition of Charities and Related Organisations concluded that there was no reason to move away from a definition of religion based on the factors considered in the Scientology case.

The Government provides a range of tax concessions to charities such as income tax exemption, goods and services tax concessions, a fringe benfits tax rebate and refundable imputation credits. As such, the Government is mindful of the need to safeguard the potential abuse of the tax status of charities.

The Commissioner of Taxation has responsibility for administering the law relating to the endorsement of charities. The ATO is required to carry out regular reviews of endorsed organisations and their operations to ensure they continue to meet the requirements of endorsement. The ATO publishes details of specific areas of focus for review on an annual basis.

As a further accountability measure charities must be endorsed by the ATO in order to benefit from any relevant tax concessions. Endorsed organisations have their charitable status attached to their Australian Business Number (ABN), and these details can be accessed by the public through the Australian Business Register at http://www.abr.business.gov.au

I trust this information will be of assistance to you.

Yours sincerely,

James Sorahan

Taxation Advisor"

There's undoubtfully a few typographical errors in here, I'm not going to bother to amend them. The response doesn't really sound all that promising, and it isn't. It's a polite way of saying they don't want a bar of it. I've sent off a bunch of other emails to other politicans, and I will advise when I receive any responses, whether they are positive, neutral, or negative.

Cheers,

Ant.