CLEVELAND LODGE SENDING MONEY TO ADYAR USING WHEATON MAY BE VIOLATING TAX EXEMPT LAWS --
Cleveland Lodge of TS sends $25K annually to Wheaton earmarking it for
Adyar. This is much more than it spends on local charities.
There are many problems with this. Cleveland lodge, by law,
cannot send money to Adyar directly. When money is sent to Wheaton, one
is not sure if the money does reach Adyar or parked in Wheaton and spent
with no transparency or even if it reaches Adyar, how it is spent since
there is no transparency.
As a tax exempt
foundation, Cleveland Lodge money has part of American Taxpayer money
involved. There is no indication if Cleveland Lodge is monitoring the
money sent to Wheaton. Such monitoring is essential since part of the
money is coming from the taxpayer.
Once a foundation gets tax exempt status, it is bound to be transparent
and public has a right to oversee how its income is spent.
After 9/11, US Government is very concerned about money that goes overseas. Hence, it is the professional advise that
"It is advisable for the sake of clarity in the grant relationship and
good business practices in general that the charity take the additional
step of putting a grant agreement in place requiring progress reporting
and return of the funds if they are used for an improper purpose."
Any one interested can contact Internal Revenue Service about the above
issue. Surely such contacts would be taken seriously. And it costs
nothing because we are talking about taxpayer money - your and my tax
money!
Peace
