It is the duty and privilege of individual believers to
serve the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh and they have no general right to be reimbursed
by the Fund for expenditures that they incur in this way.
Obviously it is only courteous for an administrative body to
offer to reimburse a believer for expenses incurred in a project that it asks
him to undertake, and it may wish to offer financial assistance to friends who
are spontaneously rendering services that it knows they cannot well afford. In
offering such assistance or reimbursement the Assembly or Committee will
undoubtedly wish to keep the expenditure within reasonable limits, but for this
purpose each project should be assessed on its own merits and it is in general
undesirable to lay down specific amounts for travel and accommodation as a
guideline.
We understand that in certain cases a believer may prefer to
claim his expenses from the Fund and then return the equivalent as a
contribution or follow some other acceptable course in order to obtain the tax
benefit that such a procedure might confer. This is of course quite permissible
and you will know best how to handle such matters in accordance with the legal
requirements. . . .
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated April
2, 1974 to a National Spiritual Assembly; compilation: Developing Distinctive
Baha’i Communities, NSA of USA, 1998 edition)