Scratch, DCP, and the IRS

[_Jason Bourne]

It doesn't matter who cut him the check.

Sure it does. It absolutly does. First from the stand point of it seems that most of this thread has implied the Dr Peterson got money from FARMs and is lying that he did not or maybe even did not report such money on his own tax return.

What matters is that he was paid $20,400 for his time and service as board chair of FARMS in 1998, regardless of whether FARMS paid him directly by cutting a check or passing the money to DCP through BYU. In the end, DCP was paid $20,400 for the time and service he spent as board chair of FARMS.

So based on a line on a tax return that says payment to chairman you say Peterson is lying that most if not all the time that was paid to BYU for giving him up was not for chair work but for other stuff. Do you think that maybe, just maybe that accountant saw an entry for $20,400 paid to BYU for DCP time and thought "Ah that Peterson guy, he is the chair so I will put this all under payments to chair" like the 990 instructions require. Maybe just maybe the accountant did not know all DCP did since most likely he was not an internal accountant but a CPA hired to prepare the return from a ledger and thus could have interpreted the information is a way that was not intended. Maybe he should have put $2,667 to chair time and the rest to something else? Who knows. You don't and I will admit I don't. But DCP knows what he did and he has explained it. You think he is lying and hold to the literal mantra of "That is not what the 990 says under penalty and oaths and so on." But the funny thing Rollo is you are not at all this literal in other things expecially when it suits your ends. Why are you now?

[_Daniel Peterson]

Mini-Scartch, though obsessively persistent (in the manner common to chronic Scartcholeptics), is persistently wrong.

I was never paid $20,000.00 per year, nor anything even close to that figure, for my services as chairman of the FARMS board.

I was, as I've explained several times, paid $3K per year for those services, which were entirely administrative (and very time-consuming).

[_Rollo Tomasi]

What matters is that he was paid $20,400 for his time and service as board chair of FARMS in 1998, regardless of whether FARMS paid him directly by cutting a check or passing the money to DCP through BYU. In the end, DCP was paid $20,400 for the time and service he spent as board chair of FARMS.

So based on a line on a tax return that says payment to chairman you say Peterson is lying that most if not all the time that was paid to BYU for giving him up was not for chair work but for other stuff. Do you think that maybe, just maybe that accountant saw an entry for $20,400 paid to BYU for DCP time and thought "Ah that Peterson guy, he is the chair so I will put this all under payments to chair" like the 990 instructions require. Maybe just maybe the accountant did not know all DCP did since most likely he was not an internal accountant but a CPA hired to prepare the return from a ledger and thus could have interpreted the information is a way that was not intended. Maybe he should have put $2,667 to chair time and the rest to something else? Who knows.

One problem with your analysis. If most of the $20,400 was paid to DCP for his work on scholarly projects (as opposed to his duties and service as board chair), it would have been included in the paid amounts listed in the "Schedule of Grants & Allocations" form attached to the Form 990, which lists, among other things, the following payments: (i) two payments totaling $26,000 to the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation; (ii) $14,560 to BYU and Scott Woodward; (iii) $2,000 to the BYU Dept. of Philosophy; (iv) $5,000 to the BYU Dept. of Anthropology; (v) $3,500 to the New World Archaeological Foundation; and (vi) $19,500 to the BYU Ancient Studies Program. However, Part II of the Form 990 (the Statement of Functional Expenses) places DCP's $20,400 comp. with all other comp. to officers and directors, separate and apart from the grants and allocations. Thus, the Form 990 itself is inconsistent with DCP's claim and your belief that the monies allocated to him were for something other than his services as board chair.

You don't and I will admit I don't. But DCP knows what he did and he has explained it.

The Form 990 suggests otherwise.

You think he is lying and hold to the literal mantra of "That is not what the 990 says under penalty and oaths and so on." But the funny thing Rollo is you are not at all this literal in other things expecially when it suits your ends. Why are you now?

Perhaps it's just me, but I take publicly-filed documents signed under oath and penalties of perjury very, very seriously (must have been instilled in me during the pre-1990 endowment ceremony).

[_Rollo Tomasi]

[Rollo Tomasi], though obsessively persistent (in the manner common to chronic Scartcholeptics), is persistently wrong.

I was never paid $20,000.00 per year, nor anything even close to that figure, for my services as chairman of the FARMS board.

I was, as I've explained several times, paid $3K per year for those services, which were entirely administrative (and very time-consuming).

FARMS's 1998 Form 990 suggests otherwise, big guy.

[_Daniel Peterson]

Mini-Scartch, though obsessively persistent (in the manner common to chronic Scartcholeptics), is persistently wrong.

I was never paid $20,000.00 per year, nor anything even close to that figure, for my services as chairman of the FARMS board.

[_Rollo Tomasi]

[Rollo Tomasi], though obsessively persistent (in the manner common to chronic Scartcholeptics), is persistently wrong.

I was never paid $20,000.00 per year, nor anything even close to that figure, for my services as chairman of the FARMS board.

FARMS's 1998 Form 990 still says otherwise.

[_Daniel Peterson]

Mini-Scartch, though obsessively persistent (in the manner common to chronic Scartcholeptics), is persistently wrong.

I was never paid $20,000.00 per year, nor anything even close to that figure, for my services as chairman of the FARMS board.

[_Rollo Tomasi]

[Rollo Tomasi], though obsessively persistent (in the manner common to chronic Scartcholeptics), is persistently wrong.

I was never paid $20,000.00 per year, nor anything even close to that figure, for my services as chairman of the FARMS board.

The Form 990 in question hasn't changed -- you're still screwed, big guy.

[_Daniel Peterson]

Mini-Scartch, though obsessively persistent (in the manner common to chronic Scartcholeptics), is persistently wrong.

I was never paid $20,000.00 per year, nor anything even close to that figure, for my services as chairman of the FARMS board.

[_Daniel Peterson]

What a fascinating discussion!

I hope others (besides Mini-Scartch, of course) find it as gripping as I do.