IHAQ wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 2:29 pm
Doesn’t the understating of their collective filing mean they’ve underpaid their full tax obligation?
No. The violation and the 13F filing have nothing at all to do with taxes. The 13F simply states what public equities are owned and how many shares are owned. It must be filed in the name of the controlling entity and be complete as to all shares owned. This gives the market essential information about what entities (and the people behind them) control voting rights and make buy-sell decisions related to their holdings. Failure to properly disclose on form 13F makes the market less transparent and therefore less efficient. Which is why congress passed the act into law in the first place. The church knowingly broke the law, placing their own interests (for privacy) above the law. Which is illegal, and why both Ensign Peak and the church itself were forced to settle and will forever remain unable to deny wrongdoing.
By settling, the church doesn't have to admit wrongdoing, but the order also leaves them unable to deny wrongdoing. That is the same as admitting guilt for an organization as cash-rich as the church. If time and money were the only things needed to "beat" this case, they'd have done it.
They settled for one reason: counsel finally convinced church leaders the least-bad outcome would be a settlement, because every alternative would be worse. Eg, they (both Ensign Peak & the church itself) would lose a public enforcement trial with a guilty verdict and a meaningful penalty.