Why don’t we move tithing settlement to January

[bsjkki]

My poor Bishop looks haggard. I don’t understand why we can’t move tithing settlement to January. All the Bishops wives and families would appreciate it too. Why does tithing settlement have to occur during November and December smashed in with the holidays?

January also makes sense because then everyone will have all their yearly earnings earned and payed. 

It’s just my common sense suggestion. Is there a reason it must take place in November and December that I am unaware of?

Edited December 12, 2018 by bsjkki

[Robert F. Smith]

One reason might be that many people pay their taxes early and need a December statement in hand for correction at tithing settlement (with the financial clerk -- gives him a chance to make crucial changes).  Having been a financial clerk, I can attest to the need for that time lag to take stock and make corrections.

[bsjkki]

53 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said:

One reason might be that many people pay their taxes early and need a December statement in hand for correction at tithing settlement (with the financial clerk -- gives him a chance to make crucial changes).  Having been a financial clerk, I can attest to the need for that time lag to take stock and make corrections.

People can pay their tithing in December and still get their statements in December to review. Tithing settlement is to declare if your a full tithe payer more than the actual accounting. That is a fair point but times are changing and I pay everything online and have access to my records all year long.

Edited December 12, 2018 by bsjkki

[let’s roll]

Not sure why tithing settlement has to be at the same time for everyone.  The purpose can be accomplished by having it once a year, regardless of the when it occurs during the year.

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, bsjkki said:

My poor Bishop looks haggard. I don’t understand why we can’t move tithing settlement to January. All the Bishops wives and families would appreciate it too. Why does tithing settlement have to occur during November and December smashed in with the holidays?

January also makes sense because then everyone will have all their yearly earnings earned and payed. 

It’s just my common sense suggestion. Is there a reason it must take place in November and December that I am unaware of?

Our wsrd’s Is completely done before thanksgiving. I think some bishops are just  worse at procrastination than others.  

[bsjkki]

7 minutes ago, bluebell said:

Our wsrd’s Is completely done before thanksgiving. I think some bishops are just  worse at procrastination than others.  

Mine has had unexpected business trips for his work. It's been rough. His wife looks stressed out too but I think he is approaching his 5 year mark so maybe relief is in sight.

 

Edited December 12, 2018 by bsjkki

[Rivers]

I sure hope I never am called into the bishopric.

[Robert F. Smith]

2 hours ago, bsjkki said:

People can pay their tithing in December and still get their statements in December to review. Tithing settlement is to declare if your a full tithe payer more than the actual accounting. That is a fair point but times are changing and I pay everything online and have access to my records all year long.

The official letter from the bishop is required as proof if the IRS has any questions, and it isn't a good idea to delay that for some people who want to file early.  My bishop does most of his settlement interviews in Nov so that Dec will be free from all the bother.  He doesn't care whether the members have paid their Dec tithing at all, because they can complete that after tithing settlement.  It is all pro forma.  It is however nice to have the financial clerk do the work necessary to get that official letter out in a timely way, and it wouldn't get done if there were not some sort of active reason to address all the loose ends.

[Hamba Tuhan]

Our financial/tax year ends 30 June. We used to hold tithing settlement in June. Then Church HQ told us we have to follow the rest of the world, so now we have tithing settlement in December. We get no tax documents because those are still printed and distributed in early July. 

[Kenngo1969]

7 hours ago, Rivers said:

I sure hope I never am called into the bishopric.

There are a couple ways to avoid such a fate.  I'm absolutely sure such a fate will never befall me (what with that whole "husband-of-one-wife" thingy getting in the way!)   Overt, conspicuous, outright sin is always an option!  

[rpn]

The purpose of tithing settlement isn't to collect, or to straighten out payment discrepancies (though the latter is an important thing to do to assure accuracy).   It is to declare one's tithing status to one's bishop so he can complete the form that has to be sent in on the 10th of January(?) (which may be the record on which our tithing is recorded for heaven).

[Amulek]

Our bishop rather enjoys tithing settlement. It gives him a chance to visit briefly with pretty much everyone in the ward, and it's a good way for him to get a sense of familys' needs around the holidays. 

We don't do anything with actual financial statements either. No print outs; no nothing. You just come in, visit with the bishop for a couple of minutes, and declare your tithing status. 

Easy peasy. 

Edited December 12, 2018 by Amulek

[alter idem]

11 hours ago, bsjkki said:

My poor Bishop looks haggard. I don’t understand why we can’t move tithing settlement to January. All the Bishops wives and families would appreciate it too. Why does tithing settlement have to occur during November and December smashed in with the holidays?

January also makes sense because then everyone will have all their yearly earnings earned and payed. 

It’s just my common sense suggestion. Is there a reason it must take place in November and December that I am unaware of?

Maybe some bishops are making it harder for themselves, our appointment took two minutes! He engaged in some friendly small talk, asked if we were full tithe payers, thanked us for our service and that was it,  we were done. 

[smac97]

6 minutes ago, alter idem said:

Maybe some bishops are making it harder for themselves, our appointment took two minutes! He engaged in some friendly small talk, asked if we were full tithe payers, thanked us for our service and that was it,  we were done. 

Our ward's bishop is likewise quite economical with these meetings.  He schedules a single Saturday in late November where he will be in the Church building all day.  He gives the members of the ward plenty of advanced notice, so that they can make alternative arrangements if they are not available on that Saturday.  He also announces that he will have a sideroom filled with fruits and cookies and milk and other snacks so the children will be excited to go.  He did not set appointment times, and instead just asked people to come as soon as they could in the day.  As for the actual meeting, he promised to keep them brief so that nobody would end up waiting long (our ward had a previous bishop who was known for scheduling appointments 5-10 minutes apart, but then getting way behind because he was a chatty fellow).

This year, on the actual Saturday, he took advantage of the gaps in between people going in to send out text messages to individuals asking them to go to the Church building for tithing settlement.  This turned out to be very effective, as quite a few people stopped what they were doing and went over immediately.  Others told the bishop that they were not available, so they made other arrangements.

Thanks,

-Smac

[ksfisher]

12 hours ago, bsjkki said:

My poor Bishop looks haggard. I don’t understand why we can’t move tithing settlement to January. All the Bishops wives and families would appreciate it too. Why does tithing settlement have to occur during November and December smashed in with the holidays?

January also makes sense because then everyone will have all their yearly earnings earned and payed. 

It’s just my common sense suggestion. Is there a reason it must take place in November and December that I am unaware of?

Bishops were instructed to begin tithing settlement on 10/14 this year.  In my ward the majority of the people who would come in did so by the end of November (this includes both a week long business trip and a Thanksgiving week vacation for the bishop).

In my experience it's not the bishop who puts things off, but members who put off coming in until the end of December.

We've tried both asking people to sign up, as well as having the exec sec set appointments.  In both cases there are people who keep putting things off.

[hope_for_things]

12 hours ago, bsjkki said:

My poor Bishop looks haggard. I don’t understand why we can’t move tithing settlement to January. All the Bishops wives and families would appreciate it too. Why does tithing settlement have to occur during November and December smashed in with the holidays?

January also makes sense because then everyone will have all their yearly earnings earned and payed. 

It’s just my common sense suggestion. Is there a reason it must take place in November and December that I am unaware of?

Or get rid of it all together.  Why is it even needed?  Its not a scriptural mandate to my knowledge. 

[CV75]

13 hours ago, bsjkki said:

My poor Bishop looks haggard. I don’t understand why we can’t move tithing settlement to January. All the Bishops wives and families would appreciate it too. Why does tithing settlement have to occur during November and December smashed in with the holidays?

January also makes sense because then everyone will have all their yearly earnings earned and payed. 

It’s just my common sense suggestion. Is there a reason it must take place in November and December that I am unaware of?

Our guidance is that it can be done in January.

[alter idem]

27 minutes ago, hope_for_things said:

Or get rid of it all together.  Why is it even needed?  Its not a scriptural mandate to my knowledge. 

It's an opportunity to make an accounting before the lord's representative,  such as in the new testament account of Peter,  ananias and saphira. I think that counts for 'scriptural '. Hopefully most tithing settlements don't go so poorly. 

[Raskolnikov]

Although I am not sure, I wouldn't be surprised if the January timing had to do with the fiscal year for the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

[hope_for_things]

30 minutes ago, alter idem said:

It's an opportunity to make an accounting before the lord's representative,  such as in the new testament account of Peter,  ananias and saphira. I think that counts for 'scriptural '. Hopefully most tithing settlements don't go so poorly. 

Ananias and Saphira had tithing settlements with Peter?  I'm not familiar with the story, maybe you can enlighten me?  

Also, I thought Joseph typically got very specific instructions for which ancient commandments needed to be restored in the modern church.  Why no D&C revelation?  

[ksfisher]

11 minutes ago, hope_for_things said:

Ananias and Saphira had tithing settlements with Peter?  I'm not familiar with the story, maybe you can enlighten me?  

Also, I thought Joseph typically got very specific instructions for which ancient commandments needed to be restored in the modern church.  Why no D&C revelation?  

For someone who has expressed a disbelief in the existence of God on this forum before it is interesting that you would be looking to the scriptures in order to justify or discard a practice.

If, however, you believe that the church is led by modern day prophets and apostles who are receiving inspiration and revelation from God as to how to lead the church today, then I don't see the need to limit what we do or do not do to what was done or revealed in the past.

 

[hope_for_things]

1 minute ago, ksfisher said:

For someone who has expressed a disbelief in the existence of God on this forum before it is interesting that you would be looking to the scriptures in order to justify or discard a practice.

If, however, you believe that the church is led by modern day prophets and apostles who are receiving inspiration and revelation from God as to how to lead the church today, then I don't see the need to limit what we do or do not do to what was done or revealed in the past.

 

My point is more about what is viewed as policy, vs. what has the impetus of specific scriptural mandate.  I'm not opposed to leaders changing even the explicitly scriptural mandates, there is precedent for every teaching to change.  But I recognize that it typically takes more effort to change certain things in the tradition.  Something that doesn't have any scriptural mandate would be much easier to change.  Like changing home teaching to ministering, or changing the age for young missionaries.  

[HappyJackWagon]

A couple of quick thoughts.

Why do tithing settlement at the end of the year- It's kind of a natural, end of year accounting time, but more than that I think that a lot of BIshops use the time to make sure families are doing well going in to the holidays. I know I discovered a number of needs simply by talking to families at tithing settlement. Like others have said, it doesn't need to be at the end of December and most bishops I know are more economical with their holiday schedule. I was always done by the first week of December. More than anything, I think tithing settlement is a policy holdover from a different time when communication and account review wasn't as simple as it is now.

Why not get rid of tithing settlement altogether?-  Tithing settlement is essentially an administrative policy, even though many use it to meet other ministering needs. Because it's a policy, it could easily be done away, as HFT has said. Yes it's a chance for a person to account before the bishop that he's a full tithe payer, but that is also done with every temple recommend interview.

End of year tax statements- Those are prepared by the Jan 31 deadline for tax purposes. Members can review their donations any time they want to ensure accuracy. Tithing settlement isn't necessary for that purpose.

So I have mixed feelings about it. Even though it was a very busy time I usually enjoyed meeting with each family towards the end of the year as a bishop, but I don't participate now. I send my bishop a text and I'm done. I don't feel a need to talk about it and I don't need another meeting for the bishops benefit, so the text does just fine.

Edited December 12, 2018 by HappyJackWagon

[mnn727]

My Bishop is usually done the Sunday before Thanksgiving. He rarely spends more than 5-10 minutes with any family.

I agree that it should be done away with, you can get a printout anytime to verify (when was the last time any ones was incorrect?) and if you're a full tithe payer you can declare that when you renew your Temple Recommend.

President Nelson is shaking things up, who knows whats next - perhaps tithing settlement.

[Jeanne]

There you go.....a new change for conference...due away with tithing settlement...it is between you and God anyway and in my opinion..(which is probably not good of course)....so away with tithing  in Temple recommends.  Horrible for giving people to pay for being righteous.