Trade or business

" A trade or business is generally an activity carried on for a livelihood or in good faith to make a profit. The facts and circumstances of each case determine whether or not an activity is a trade or business. The regularity of activities and transactions and the production of income are important elements.

So determine if something qualifies as trade or business questions may be asked and answered:

• Is it done for profit?
• What are the facts of each case?
• What are the facts and circumstances of each case?
• What is the regularity?
• Is it for the production of income which is the profit?

The IRS defines it as:

"The term trade or business generally includes any activity carried on for the production of income from selling goods or performing services. It is not limited to integrated aggregates of assets, activities, and goodwill that comprise businesses for purposes of certain other provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. Activities of producing or distributing goods or performing services from which gross income is derived do not lose their identity as trades or businesses merely because they are carried on within a larger framework of other activities that may, or may not, be related to the organization's exempt purposes."

Was Paul a Tentmaker?

• What are the facts in Paul's case?
• What are the circumstances of his tent making?
• What is the regularity of his tent-making in relation to Paul's personal work day?
• Is it for the production of income which is the profit for himself?

Can a member of an Order work manufacturing or producing a product that can be sold or traded?

I start here because it is simple to see that someone thinks that Paul "using his skill to work with a family of tent makers and provide for himself and his companions" is not trade or business.

This is simply not true.

It is not the "nature and extant of the work" that makes it the "trade" of "trade or business". There is the facts and circumstances, regularity and profit motive that must be considered and determined.

If religion is defined as the way you care for the widows and orphans and needy of your society then Social Security is a civil and religious institution. All one needs to do to come to this conclusion is know the meaning of words like Religion, Pure Religion, Public religion and what the Christian conflict with Rome consisted of and what the Imperial Cult of Rome and finally examine the difference between Rome and the US.

The only difference between the Roman Welfare system and that of the Kingdom of God was that Christians took care of their need by way of the straight way of John the Baptist and Christ by faith, hope and charity and the Perfect law of liberty while the Roman government did the same by using the power of their Benefactors to exercise authority to force the offerings of the people.

Rome used its Temples to do that job just like modern government but the Christians saw every man as the temple because a central temple allowed thieves and robbers and corrupt ministers to rob any central treasury.

So as a member of the religious institution called Social Security you depend upon the Benefactors of that system to take care of your poor, widows, orphans and even your parents. You do not have to do those jobs for they are done by that institution which is a system of Corban like that of Rome and Herod.

Because you are members of that "religious order" where you have to share all your labor with the head of the order you must pay in a portion of all the work you do. A share of anything you receive for your labor is now considered to be profit because you have waived a right to a portion of your labor when you applied for your SSN or began to use it to obtain benefits.

Your SSN is also a Federal Employee Identification Number. Your government/order is also in debt for which you are a surety being an entitled member. That means the distribution of all your labor is now for profit and you must share a portion of all your labor to pay the debt of your order/government.

Because you have given your leaders the power to exercise authority over yourself and all the other members of that governmental order and have the number or ID to prove it all work for which you receive something in return is done for profit.

Because your order is in debt you cannot just throw the evidence of your membership away for you are a member of record and the leaders have borrowed against you surety because your order offered entitlements not charity, They operated by an exercising authority/ force not charity.

Many people do not want to think this way because they want to redefine words like Religion, Pure Religion, Public religion and do not want to know what the Christian conflict was really all about. But your government is your order.

Example one:

If you helped sew a tent with a social security number in your pocket or government ID that you got with the number while you sat on the floor sewing tents to get a meal and a place to sleep then you are engaged in the "trade" of "trade and business".

It is common knowledge that it is not getting money for something you make that makes the action of exchange "trade and business". If you paint the dentist office to get your teeth fixed both activities are trade and are taxable if you are both members of the government. A Federal Employee with a recorded SS number to prove it is a member. Your labor is not yours so when you trade it your work is taxable.

If someone is truly a member with others in a group that has waived their right to their Federal SS benefits including the use of the number to obtain ID etc. you may not be obligated to pay taxes on your labor under certain conditions. Your labor naturally is yours. Produce something with your labor and sell it does not make in commerce.

COMMERCE is not just a trade by contracts but is done with an intent to realize a profit. A profit is a "benefit" beyond the exchange of the value of a thing. Profit is gain and to trade for gain is an expression of intent.

Could Paul be making tents for religious purposes?

Not for personal gain but for the others in His Religious order to the benefit of Christ?

What are the facts and circumstances of Paul's life?

One would not look at the operation of making the tent but what he was doing along with the rest of His order which likely included Barnabas, Timothy, Aquila and Priscilla and others who worked with him as we see in the epistles.

If Paul is "using his skill to work with a family of tent makers and provide for himself and his companions" [which would be an order] would not be "trade and business", whether he was using a needle and a thread on the floor of a house or running a large sewing machine manufacturing tents.

The Levites were allowed to take donations and sell them or trade them to others for other things that they needed more to do their job. They have already given themselves to God and given up the benefits offered by the gods of the world. They also produced goods like the Essenes but they spent the majority of their time striving to serve others or support their fellow ministers who were serving others.

The term religious must include the two basic connotations. One it must be because of spiritual conviction and two the majority of what he does or the effort he expends must go to charitable purposes.

Why half? Because half of every man's day should be his own.

• So as a Tentmaker Paul's "circumstances" of tent-making was not to profit himself but to lift the burden form those who should be supporting him and his work for Christ?
• Paul clearly devoted most of his time to serving the Church and not himself, being persecuted, jailed, beaten suffering shipwreck, hunger and thirst for Christ as of a result of his ministry.

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This is all covered in The Free Church Report in greater detail than here for minister of the Church:

http://www.hisholychurch.org/vforum/discussion/18/trade-or-business

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