Hobby Lobby Owner Loses Income Tax Deduction

Source: Forbes

The Tenth Circuit overruled a district court decision that granted the trust that owns Hobby Lobby a $3.2 million refund. The refund claim was based on charitable contributions of appreciated property. The decision will be of interest to some planners. And then there is nosing through the documents for Hobby Lobby gossip, something which I found irresistible.

Hobby Lobby describes itself as the largest privately owned arts-and-crafts retailer in the world - over 800 stores, about 32,000 employees in 47 states. Headquarters in Oklahoma include a 9.2 million square foot manufacturing, distribution and office complex. Although most corporate mission statements will talk about how much the corporation loves its customer and employees, Hobby Lobby also includes a specifically religious element - "Honoring the Lord in all we do by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles". Among other things that means that if you have an urgent compelling need for arts and crafts supplies on Sunday, Hobby Lobby is not your go to place . The Hobby Lobby people in accordance with the Fourth (Third if they are Catholics) Commandment are remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy.

Among those other things Hobby Lobby fought a requirement of the Affordable Care Act that required its health plan to fund certain forms of birth control that were considered abortifacients. The outcome of that fight was the Supreme Court decision in Burwell v Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby won that case, but there is plenty of other coverage, so we won't get into it here.

Hobby Lobby was started as a home business by David and Barbara Green in 1970.

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2018/01/23/hobby-lobby-owner-loses-income-tax-deduction/#f85f5d179765