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Clearwater's Temple B'nai Israel puts IRS problems behind it

By Eileen Schulte, Times Staff Writer
In print: Saturday, June 21, 2008

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CLEARWATER — For nearly 40 years, Temple B'nai Israel has been a peaceful, quiet synagogue sitting on a tree-shaded lot on Belcher Road.

Its members prayed together, helped improve the lives of others as a means of honoring God and joyfully celebrated the High Holidays with each other under the leadership of Rabbi Arthur Baseman, who joined the synagogue in 1969, when it moved to its current location.

But, the congregation's leadership recently acknowledged, the temple failed to remit payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service for years.

The lapse was discovered by an outside auditor and led to a quick fundraising campaign to make good on the obligation, according to Jack Geller, a past president of the temple and its designated spokesman on this issue.

The payment, however, did not come before the IRS placed $900,000 in federal tax liens against the temple's property at 1685 S Belcher Road.

The liens, filed March 30, 2007, sought payment on taxes owed between March 2000 and March 2006.

Geller said the failure to pay the taxes was the fault of past staff members whom he did not identify.

"The employees involved with this issue are no longer with the temple and unfortunately, by the time this issue came to our attention, it was too late to recover full details,'' he wrote in an e-mail in response to inquiries from the Times.

"As a matter of process, the board requested an outside accounting firm review the financial records and that is when we discovered payroll taxes were unpaid for a period of five quarters," he added. "We raised these funds from a few members almost immediately only to be informed by the IRS that the taxes had not been paid since 2001.''

He said an offer was submitted and accepted by the IRS and that amount has now been paid in full.

He did not say what happened to the former workers, nor did he respond to further requests for information on the temple's finances.

But in addition to the tax obligation, the synagogue's leaders learned the temple had not paid a substantial amount in dues over the years to the Union for Reform Judaism, something Geller acknowledged in an e-mail to the Times.

"The union has been very supportive and understanding of our situation and we are pleased to report that the temple has paid its union dues this year and we are a member in good standing,'' he wrote.

A representative of the Union for Reform Judaism, an organization that is based in New York City and provides guidance to congregations on a variety of issues, would not comment.

Because of its financial obligations, the temple borrowed an undisclosed amount of money from its endowment funds, Geller acknowledged. "However," he added, "assets of equivalent value have been designated to the endowment funds."

He said that "like other religious organizations, we often had financial challenges and operated at a deficit."

"We are pleased to report that with a focused board and congregational effort, we are ahead of our estimated year-end results," he added.

Asked whether the congregation had recovered from its setbacks, Geller wrote that "we have instituted a plan over the last two years that would strongly suggest we have 'recovered.'

"The temple has worked diligently to strengthen our financial position. We are very fortunate to have a caring and supportive congregation and are optimistic and excited about our future.

"We are confident that our new team of professional leaders, who share our excitement about the future, will continue to make Temple B'nai Israel a wonderful place to worship."

Recent changes at the temple include the retirement of Baseman, 70, who leaves this month.

Though Baseman's retirement has generated a considerable amount of conjecture, leaders have said the temple's financial problems had nothing to do with his departure, nor did they hasten it. Rather, they said plans for his retirement have been in the works for years.

Baseman has declined to discuss his retirement with the Times. His lawyer, Lou Kwall, said his client was simply the spiritual leader of the temple and did not handle financial issues the temple faced.

Asked about that, Geller responded that Baseman, as a member of the board of trustees, executive committee and other committees, was aware of any problems "to the extent that the board was aware.''

Without being specific, both sides acknowledge they had some matters to resolve before Baseman left.

"As it became time for the rabbi to retire, there were issues on both sides, the synagogue and the rabbi,'' Kwall said an interview last month. "After discussion, they were resolved. It's a private matter between the synagogue and the rabbi.''

Said Geller, in his e-mail: "The situation between the rabbi and the temple has been resolved and we are focused on making plans to celebrate 60 years of service to our congregational family and community. As we have previously acknowledged, this has been a difficult period of time for our congregation and we are now focused on the future.''

Eileen Schulte can be reached at schulte@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4153.