By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

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The following appeared in a letter which we received from Minnesota:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Tanner: . . . I have a Mormon friend that claims that you . . . are involved in anti-Mormon publishing because of the money involved. . . . Would you folks like to address the charge that you are only “in it for the money.”

The following is written in response to this letter. In the lawsuit that Andrew Ehat recently brought against us, Gordon A. Madsen (Ehat’s lawyer) demanded that we produce our “1982 and ‘83 tax returns and financial computation of profit of the defendants regarding the publication Clayton’s Secret Writings Uncovered; . . .” These records effectively destroy the charge that we are getting rich from our publications. In the Deposition of Jerald Tanner, pages 106-107, the following appears:

A Well, I took my income tax form for 1982, and I grossed $64,374.49. And my total income after all the expenses is $9935.83. Now, that is all that I’ve gotten on sales. I received gifts besides that, but this is the sales, all the books I have done together.

Q 9,000 subtotal revenue from book sales?

A Yes. That also includes my royalty from Moody Press, . . .

Q And then you had a net profit of just under 10,000—

A Yes.

While some Mormon apologists have accused us of making vast sums of money through the sale of our publications, our tax records certainly do not support this malicious accusation. On our 1983 income tax return we reported an adjusted gross income of $22,285.15. Since we both worked full-time for Utah Lighthouse Ministry, this would amount to just over $11,000 each. Considering the amount of hours we have to work and the stress that comes from this type of ministry, we do not feel that we are taking advantage of the public.

Photographs of the first pages of our tax returns and some additional testimony concerning our finances are reproduced in our book, The Tanners On Trial, pages 138-141. One thing about our tax returns that seems to put to rest the idea that we have become rich off of our work is the fact that we show an “interest income” of only $24.37 in two years. It is obvious from this that we do not have any vast sums tucked away in savings accounts. The only real estate we own is our home.

While we could have charged twice as much for our publications, we have chosen to provide them at the lowest cost possible so that we can reach a larger number of Mormons. The expense of putting out just one issue of the Salt Lake City Messenger, which we distribute free of charge, now amounts to quite a bit of money. If it were not for the donations given by our friends, we would have to either raise our prices or quit.

At the present time we find ourselves a little short of funds, and we would certainly appreciate any donations that our readers are able to make. Remember that UTAH LIGHTHOUSE MINISTRY is a non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible.

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