Most Recent Posts
Match Group CEO Wins Tax Case By Arguing His Heart Was In Texas With His Dog
Phil Dardeno, my go to Massachusetts SALT guy, told me once that the true home, the real domicile is where the family pictures are. It was different for Mr. Blatt. He started going to the gym in Dallas, something he had never done in New York and having his prescriptions filled there. And of course there were the basics of a drivers licenses and voters registration. The really big sign though was the dog.
Two Cousins Far Apart In the Spring Of Tin Soldiers And Nixon
As a reflection on the late sixties, my Xavier series has two serious flaws. Well two that I notice anyway. Xavier was a single sex high school. I still believe that...
Target Brands Unit Cannot Entirely Avoid Colorado Income Tax
I probably don’t get out enough or something because I don’t recognize any of the brands for various lines of products that Target supports. I had fun guessing what some of them might be. Boots & Barkley sounded like something outdoorsy. It’s actually stuff for your pets, which makes sense when I think about it. I had no idea what Xhilaratation might be, which you will see is a good thing if you check the link. Fieldcrest also sounded outdoorsy, but it is towels.
City Plays Grinch When Ellen DeGeneres Helps Single Mother
One of my earliest blogging dreams was to be noticed by Ellen Degeneres, as I assiduously covered the tax controversy about same-sex marriage. The obsession grew over the years enough so that someone whose opinion I value told me that it was getting creepy. At any rate, I never got the impression that her people were following my blog. It does strike me though that it would be a good thing if her show and Shutterfly did some followup on the people that they helped to make sure there are not unintended consequences. I think Shutterfly’s tax department needs to take a look at their decision to send out 1099’s to the beneficiaries of their philanthropy.
Mostly, though I think the tax collectors of Xenia, Ohio should probably just back down on this and go fight crime someplace else. This situation is in no way comparable to that of Survivor, Richard Hatch, who was competing for the million-dollar prize he failed to report.
Clergy Housing Tax Break Seen As Unconstitutional
His analysis is that the parsonage exclusion violates the Establishment Clause and that the arguments that the Free Exercise Clause mitigates the concern do not stand up. Not every benefit to religious organizations violates the Establishment Clause. The treatment of churches as exempt 501(c)(3) organizations is part of a larger scheme to exempt organizations that can be viewed as serving the public good. Churches are exempt, but so is the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
On the other hand, churches are not required to file Form 990 or apply for exempt status and the IRS has to jump through enough hoops to initiate a church audit that it pretty much doesn’t bother. This relatively hands-off policy recognizes the free exercise clause.
Argument For The Constitutionality Of The Parsonage Exclusion
One of the issues that I have been following since the beginning of my blogging days is the Freedom From Religion Foundation's quixotic seeming quest to have the...
Transactivist Comments On Article About O’Donnabhain Decision
When I asked Toni D'Orsay, Executive Director of the Trans 100 to comment on an article about the O'Donnobhain decision, which recognized gender confirmation surgery as...
President Trump Exaggerates Limits On Clergy Speech At Prayer Breakfast
What is unclear from the President’s statement is what he means by destroying the Johnson amendment. There is a bill in Congress HR 6195 The Free Speech Fairness Act, which is more of a tweak to the Johnson amendment, but arguably addresses the President’s concern and also that of the promoters of Pulpit Freedom Sunday
An Examination Of IRS Startling Argument On Gender Confirmation Surgery
The IRS lost badly in Tax Court. a decision I covered in the very dawn of my blogging career. In a pretty unusual move, the IRS signaled its acquiescence in the decision. Of course, that was during the Obama administration. All in, the Traditional Values Coalition arguably shot itself in the foot by pressuring the IRS to take on this fight. The whole matter along with the fight over DOMA was the inspiration for Reilly’s First Law of Tax Policy – Make tax policy the Switzerland of the culture war.
President Trump has gone on record on trans issues by indicating that Caitlyn Jenner can use whatever bathroom she feels most comfortable within Trump’s properties. So perhaps there will not be another shift with the new administration.
Decision On Clergy Housing Tax Benefit Coming This Summer
So if FFRF wins, this matter becomes a concern for church budgets in 2019. I’m hoping there will be a “Make Our Pastor Whole” movement. My experience with small congregation governance is that generally, the problem is people thinking things should be able to run with them dropping the same amount in the plate that their grandparents did forgetting that grandma baked nine million cookies to sell and grandpa painted the church himself. Maybe this will serve as a wake-up call.