“It has been very tempting to think of practice as something that will become true in the future, but it is a science of NOW!”

What I have been learning in the past couple months is in regards to the trap of mortal mind to suggest that "while things may be dark now, if there is reason to hope, it is for the future."  Certainly one might look at the testimony given about the turn around with the business as a humanly understandable dark set of circumstances followed by a nice turn of fortune.  But that is inaccurate.

At the conclusion of 2016, after a year of tremendous growth, progress, and profitable operations it came time to consider the tax situation of the business.  With children in college, pending obligations to business creditors, and a mess with the IRS in the middle of being cleaned up, the question of income had a lot more significance than simply an accurate reporting of monies received over the year.  I had been working, with C.S. practitioner help, for months on the passage in S&H about "disentangle[ing] the interlaced ambiguities" (114:25), and, beautifully, there were complex problems that became unraveled, if you will, as we worked and as I wrote about last month.

As I was working on this year's tax return and had several complex tax questions pending with my CPA, I started seeing answers to IRS problems that did not come from either my CPA or tax attorney.  I've tried to write it down in a clear and concise way, but have failed several times because it's very detailed and if the reader doesn't know tax code, well, it requires a lot of explanation.  What I saw was that the seemingly enormous tax "problem" that I had, was through a series of interlaced rules, a tax SHELTER for me now.  And before I go on, this recognition came about as a direct result of prayerfully working about how to repay debt that the company had incurred over the years.  There were any number of ways to get out of the debt, all legal, of course, but regardless, there were business bankruptcy options, creditors who could be denied the right to collect money or would have to spend a good deal of money to do so.  My concern was that I wanted to pay back not just enough to legally be out of debt, but as much as could be accomplished, even if they hadn't made demands for years.  And it was that desire that opened the way forward.  So, what I learned was that the company had inadequately taken deductions for IRS and other debts and that correcting that, and going forward with accruals, would shield income from current and future tax.

So, when I realized how the tax rules applied to me, in my specific circumstance, and frankly I can't see any way to construct a scenario that would have this same advantage, I realized that it was the very specific answer on how I would be enabled to pay many, perhaps even all, of the creditors.  The list of what-if's is long - if the company hadn't made a specific election that was non-standard in 2007 when it formed, this solution wouldn't apply; if we had made a bit less money in 2016, the answer wouldn't work; if I hadn't found a reliable attorney a few months before, several pieces of this solution would likely have been obscured.  It just all came together. And, in coming together, the answer accomplished several things:

The company I was certain needed to be sold, is not going to be sold.

• The company that survived after efforts to sell the business a year ago fell through, but not just survived but thrived.
   
• Thriving now meant that the company could and would continue for two years, but only two years because of IRS limitations.
   
• With the new recognition of how certain rules apply to the business, the two-year limit was extended to six years.
   
• The extension from two years to six allows the business to pay the balance of most if not all of its debts.

When I realized this situation and the application of the tax law, it was clearly Mind - after all, my background isn't in tax law.  I found myself explaining it to both the CPA and the tax attorney. Both of them understood what I was saying but had a hard time believing it and wanted to consult the tax code on their own, which they did, and returned with the same conclusion I had come up with.  This answer from Mind had a net effect on the business of substantial income over six years - quite a different view from bankruptcy, insolvency, and an inability to pay creditors.

What's more, it made me realize that just as our Leader says, and as we assert as practitioners, right where seeming darkness and despair seemed to be, right there was already the perfect answer to meet my needs - not simply at some time in the future, but now!  This has led me to study more about what Mrs. Eddy says in the textbook about “future”.  It has been very tempting to think of practice as something that will become true in the future, but it is a science of NOW!  "Now ..."is the accepted time"...not that now men must prepare for a future..."(39:18), "mistaking fact for fiction, -- predicting the future from a groundwork of corporeality and human belief."(84:5); "If Life or Soul and its representative, man, unite for a period and then are separated as by a law of divorce to be brought together again at some uncertain future time and in a manner unknown, - and this is the general religious opinion of mankind, - we are left without a rational proof of immortality. But man cannot be separated for an instant from God, if man reflects God." (306:13) And finally, "The false belief that spirit is now submerged in matter, at some future time to be emancipated from it, - this belief alone is mortal." (546:1)

I should add, finally, that it was important to me throughout this healing, to be paying the practitioner "first", like Elisha saying to the widow woman, to make bread for him first.  I was able to do this, and it certainly contributed to the healing work.