The founding and development of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints run parallel to the rise of the modern tax system and administrative state. Samuel D. Brunson looks at the relationships between the Church and various federal, state, local, and international tax regimes.

The church and its members engage with the state as taxpayers and as members of a faith exempt from taxes. As Brunson shows, LDS members and the Church have at various times enacted, enforced, and collected taxes while also challenging taxes in the courts and politics. Brunson delves into the ways LDS members used their status as taxpayers to affirm themselves as citizens and how outsiders have attacked the Church’s tax-exempt status to delegitimize it. Throughout, Brunson uses the daily interactions between the Latter-day Saints and taxation to explain important and inevitable holes in the wall between church and state.

Enlightening and informed, Between the Temple and the Tax Collector provides general readers and experts alike with a new perspective on a fundamental issue.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I. Frontier Religion, Frontier Taxation

1. Mormon Origins
2. Funding a City
3. Collecting Taxes in Nauvoo
4. The Mormons’ Utah Home
5. Brigham Young and Federal Taxation
6. Enlarging Mormonism’s Borders
7. A Corporate Church in Brooklyn
 Part II. Tinkering around the Edges of Tax and Religion
1. Mormon Protest Against Taxation
2. Polygamy and . . . Taxes?
3. The Mormon Church’s Lobbying
4. Volunteer Missionaries and Paid Clergy
5. Tax Exemption as a Lever for Change

Conclusion

Notes

Index