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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 8, 1985
1985 Feast of Tabernacles in China (U.S. and Canadian Ministers)
PAGE 3
Please remind any in your congregations who plan to apply for the 1985 Fes
tival tour of the People's Republic of China to send in their applications
immediately. The Festival Office needs to have all applications in Pasa
dena by February 20 so we may formalize our commitment to the Chinese gov
ernm'
ent. Thank you for your cooperation.
"Double Deduction" Tax Benefit Continues One More Year
We have recently received a number of inquiries from U.S. ministers con
cerning the termination of the "double deduction" tax benefit for mortgage
interest and property tax. Under current law the benefit continues for one
more year. To help clarify the question, we are reprinting a statement that
appeared in the July 27, 1984 PGR.
U.S. ministers who are living in homes they have owned (or had a
contract to purchase) prior to January 3, 1983 have been given
another year to include mortgage interest and property tax as an
itemized deduction on their income tax return. The Tax Reform
Act of 1984 has made provision to continue the deductibility of
these items until January 1, 1986.
This means your "double deduction" benefit is available through
the 1985 tax year. Even though your mortgage interest and prop
erty tax is paid with your housing allowance (which is exempt
from income tax), you can still list these expenses as itemized
deductions on your tax return. This effectively excludes another
substantial portion of your income from income tax.
Those ministers who purchased homes after January 2, 1983 are not
eligible for this benefit even during the current tax year. For
them the benefit was terminated on June 30, 1983.
International News
From Mr. Peter Nathan 1984 was an exciting year for God's Church in New
Zealand and the South Pacific. It got off to a thrilling start with a five
day visit by God's Apostle, Mr. Herbert
w.
Armstrong, January 4 to 9. Mr.
Armstrong toured the Summer Educational Program and spoke to brethren in
three locations.
Other developments during the year included the placing of illuminated
PLAIN TRUTH displays in the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch airports,
and the installation of a new IBM PC-XT computer in the Auckland office.
On the media front, 1984 saw our first ever direct mail promotion, which
brought an excellent 6.8% response. Four READER'S DIGEST advertisements
brought in over 2,500 new PLAIN TRUTH subscriptions, and 368,000 newspaper
inserts resulted in a further 4,100 requests for The PLAIN TRUTH. All told,
16,500 new PLAIN TRUTH subscribers were added in 1984, an increase of 33.5%
over the number added in 1983.
The GOOD NEWS offer to two-year PLAIN TRUTH subscribers elicited a 30% re
sponse. This added 3,000 new GOOD NEWS subscribers, doubling its mailing
list.