U.S. Government Defends Church Housing Tax Exemption In Federal Appeals Court

Next time the religious right claims the federal government is waging a war on Christianity, share with them this story. 

The federal government is working hard to defend a law that gives church ministers a unique tax exemption that costs Americans big bucks every year.

Late last year the Freedom from Religion Foundation won a major victory in federal court. The organization, which fights for separation of church and state, sued the federal government over a housing tax exemption available only to church ministers that costs Americans about a billion dollars each year. The FFRF won, but government agencies, the IRS and Department of the Treasury, appealed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

That case was decided by Judge Barbara Crabb, who would go on this year to rule as unconstitutional the same-sex marriage ban in the state of Wisconsin.

Now, once again, the federal government is struggling to defend the tax exemption.

Judge Crabb had ruled that “the problem” with the law allowing the ministerial  tax exemption “is that it violates the well-established principle under the First Amendment that absent the most unusual circumstances, one’s religion ought not affect one’s legal rights or duties or benefits.”

The Freedom from Religion Foundation is arguing that the tax exemption “undeniably confers a significant tax benefit upon religious clergy that is not available to nonclergy taxpayers.”

“Only ministers can exclude cash housing allowances, a result that is patently unfair,” the FFRF is arguing.

“If you’ve got a benefit that’s widely available for which religion is only one component, then you’re OK,” the Freedom from Religion Foundation attorney Richard Bolton told the Court Tuesday.

Courthouse News reports the 7th Circuit judges “struggled” on Tuesday with the case, and that even one judge admitted to looking “perplexed.”

In their brief, the FFRF argues that “even the Bible commands citizens to ‘render on to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s,'” but “the government simply dismisses basic principles of neutrality and fairness when it comes to clergy taxation.” 

The federal government is arguing that the Freedom from Religion Foundation does not have standing in this matter.

 

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