Clergy Housing Tax Break Withstands Challenge – Atheist Group Lacks Standing
The legal problem with challenging the exclusion has always been standing.It is hard to argue in court against a tax break that somebody else is getting. The judges tell you that it is no skin off your nose and that you should write your Congressman. Of course, the judges put it much more eloquently, but that’s the gist of it.
In order to obtain standing Freedom From Religion Foundation started paying a couple of its officers a housing allowance. Since they would rather have you call them late for breakfast than “minister of the gospel”, they did not exclude the allowance from their income when they filed their returns. Judge Barbara Crabb thought it would be silly to require the FFRF officers to file refund claims that they IRS would deny in order to have standing to sue. The Seventh Circuit did not agree:
Kent Hovind Finally Silenced? – Guest Post From Robert Baty
Bob Baty is my constant commenter on forbes.com. He and I shared an interest in the parsonage exclusion. Although saying Bob, bane of the basketball ministers, has...
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.