Tax Exempt Form California: Fill & Download for Free

I think the most significant thing about Teslas made in China is they will finally be able to post a profit for the company’s shareholders…The Gigafactory 3 near Shanghai will produce 1/2 million cars/year and they have already delivered the first 15 of the model 3 cars to Tesla employees. They are only building and selling the $50,000 model 3 ($42,900 after China's purchase tax exemption and the new energy subsidy or incentives it received from the Chinese government). If Chinese customers want a colour other than black it will only cost them $1100 including a shiny red one which now costs $2000 in California.

They should be eligible only if they meet the exact same requirements as secular organizations. Right now they get special treatment and that needs to go.Follow-up on Will Wister's comment:At present, Churches are not held to same standards as other tax exempt 501(c)(3) organizations: http://www.irs.gov/charities/churches/index.htmlFor example, Special Rules Limiting IRS Authority to Audit a Church | http://www.irs.gov/charities/churches/article/0,,id=179674,00.htmlCongress has imposed special limitations, found in section 7611 of the Internal Revenue Code, on how and when the Internal Revenue Service of the United States of America may conduct civil tax inquiries and examinations of churches.Also, Special Rules for Compensation of Ministers, and other special cases covered here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1828.pdfThere should be ONE 501(c)(3) (tax exempt) code for all tax exempt organizations and it should be applied equally and fairly to all.And one example of where Church tax exempt status has been likely abused was in California over Proposition 8, where religious organizations used their tax exempted money improperly for political ends. As you can see in the PDF on Church status it plainly states "no substantial part of its activity may be attempting to influence legislation". So, why did the Churches which plainly attempted to influence Proposition 8 not get sanctioned or lose their tax exempt status? A legal analysis: http://www.law.northwestern.edu/lawreview/colloquy/2009/10/LRColl2009n10Galle.pdf

I was the sales tax department for a large, international distribution warehouse of electronic related items, that grossed around $285 million per year. I was the sales tax accounting. One person, me. I was the only one performing daily tasks like coding accounts as tax exempt. I think at the time there were roughly 38 States where we had Nexus - a brick and mortar sales office. I set up all of the State requirements as a new branch opened or moved. This involved primarily state licensing, but I had to verify if it was a county or city that required a license. These licenses were renewed annually so I had folders for each states compliance at hand for several years to refer back to during state audit. More on that in a minute. I also handled all of the State/county/city property taxes each year. It’s not difficult, just a bit time consuming. All of the folders for each location were immaculately organized so that any one that needed to refer to them would have the necessary information at hand. I did these tasks as well. Just me.Each year of the 10 years I worked there, there were at least two State Sales Tax Audits, sometimes three per year. The audits were very time consuming when gathering all of the information the auditor needed. My first audit was with Colorado within my first few months there. The auditor knew less about his own States sales tax than I did. I argued a $143,000 assessment to $36,000. I managed to get a check for $100,000 from Lockheed for sales tax on an account that had been flagged tax exempt while it should have been taxable. Boom! Right off the bat saved the company a bunch of money. California came for its three year routine audit. Initial assessment was $42,000. I argued it down to $28,450. Lowest assessment ever for California. This pattern continues through out the years. Virginia also had a three year circuit. The last time he did an audit it resulted in a zero assessment. I have to give props to the Virginia branches for taking me seriously on getting exemption certificates.While I’m doing my daily tasks, I also did reverse audits where I would get a report with all the accounts flagged tax exempt for a certain State and check the files to see if we had a valid exemption certificate. I drafted a canned letter and would create a spreadsheet to print out each company’s mailing information and a blank copy of the correct form we needed and mail it to them. The reverse audits were an amazing benefit to me. It saved time on gathering information for audits and I didn’t need to try to get them after the fact for audits.The first three years I worked there, my boss would come around to see how I was doing and if I needed anything. Then suddenly I hardly ever saw him. He was almost never in his office. We did those stupid annual reviews where both the boss and employee graded on a form. After five years he started saying that he was just going to go with the grades I gave myself BECAUSE HE REALLY DIDN'T KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING. He was the controller and my direct boss!I developed medical issues and was forced to retire early because of it. I had lunch with a good friend that also worked there. She told me my boss had no idea I was doing as much work as I was and that everything was so organized the next person could refer to the folders and know what to do. She told me that he said he should have expanded the department long ago. Even though he became absent from checking on me, he was a great guy.They literally hired three people to do my job. I felt both smug and proud.