Annual Tithing Report Reminder Correction

With 4 days still to go in the tithing declaration time period, as a ward clerk I got an email from headquarters today which states that the annual tithing report is due on December 15, not January 15 as we were previously instructed earlier this year. Am not sure our bishop even got this email, so I forwarded it to him. Reports are going to be late I would guess with this very late due date correction notice.

The email also states that clerks are responsible for submitting this report. That is only true if the bishop asks the clerk to enter the statuses and submit the report. That paragraph has been improperly worded for a number of years and I see it still is not correct.

garystroble wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:22 pm I got an email from headquarters today which states that the annual tithing report is due on December 15, not January 15

That would certainly be a break from long-standing tradition.

There's a number of members who tend to pay a major chunk of tithing in the last week of the year.

russellhltn wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:46 pm

garystroble wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:22 pm I got an email from headquarters today which states that the annual tithing report is due on December 15, not January 15

That would certainly be a break from long-standing tradition.

There's a number of members who tend to pay a major chunk of tithing in the last week of the year.

One can still declare and pay later; bishops can start tithing declaration as early as September 1 currently.

garystroble wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:52 pm One can still declare and pay later; bishops can start tithing declaration as early as September 1 currently.

So, this is not the "final" report - just one from the interviews and not including what the bishop decided?

russellhltn wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:59 pm

garystroble wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:52 pm One can still declare and pay later; bishops can start tithing declaration as early as September 1 currently.

So, this is not the "final" report - just one from the interviews and not including what the bishop decided?

Again, today's email said the final report is now due December 15, 4 days from now. Previous communication from August 11 (exactly 4 months ago) said it was due January 15. Not a very timely correction I would have to say.

The August 11, 2023, notice, Tithing Declaration and Donor Statements, stated in the second bullet "December 15: End tithing declaration." To me and my bishop that meant it ends and the report is due on that day. The follow-up reminders just made it clear that our understanding was correct.

jdlessley wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 11:24 pm The August 11, 2023, notice, Tithing Declaration and Donor Statements, stated in the second bullet "December 15: End tithing declaration." To me and my bishop that meant it ends and the report is due on that day. The follow-up reminders just made it clear that our understanding was correct.

The first paragraph of today's email states: "Each year the ward clerk submits the Annual Tithing Report. The stake clerk works with the ward clerks to ensure that the report is submitted by December 15. A previous communication listed the due date for tithing declaration as January 15. This is not correct, please see the correct date." (underline added)

The August 11, 2023 notice did not specifically list a due date under the category of wards, but this was the verbiage to stakes which certainly implied if not actually said that wards had until January 15 to complete the report: "Verify that each ward has completed all tithing declarations by January 15."

The 2022 tithing report was due January 15, 2023 (you can see it under Record-Keeping Status in LCR, at least until it gets overridden by this year's due date), so this is a change from last year, and announced extremely late, as acknowledged by the underlined text above.

Interestingly, in the "Tithing Declaration" tab of the LCRF Tithing Declaration webpage, the popup blurb still states (at least as of when I'm typing this...) that "Declarations should be entered upon completion of tithing declaration and prior to 15 January". The more... link at the end of the blurb then takes you to the "Identifying and Recording Tithing Status" Help FAQ, which is dated Dec 22 2023, and contains the (correct) info about Dec 15th. Is does seem there was a bit of a month mixup by whoever edited these docs

And it does appear that Bishops weren't included in any email distribution about this clarification. Which is also interesting.

Stake clerks were not notified of anything regarding this either.

sareid wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2023 3:06 pm Stake clerks were not notified of anything regarding this either.

Wow, yikes, not good.

...the "Identifying and Recording Tithing Status" Help FAQ, which is dated Dec 22 2023

Oops, I definitely mis-typed the date. The FAQ is dated Sep 22 2023, which is what I meant to state. I guess those editing the Church webpages aren't the only ones who mix-up dates!

Just received a second email from Church headquarters that the December 11 email was WRONG regarding the new deadline of December 15, and that the deadline for the tithing declaration report is STILL January 15.