Churches can stop worrying that their pastors’ best benefit will be taken away by an atheist lawsuit””for now.
Today, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s high-profile decision that the longstanding clergy housing allowance was unconstitutional. The 60-year-old tax break excludes the rental value of a pastor’s home from their taxable income.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) challenged the law last year in Wisconsin, and federal judge Barbara Crabb agreed the allowance violated the First Amendment by providing “a benefit to religious persons and no one else, even though doing so is not necessary to alleviate a special burden on religious exercise.”
Read it all.
(CT) ”˜Parsonage allowance’ upheld by U.S. federal court against challenge by atheist group
Churches can stop worrying that their pastors’ best benefit will be taken away by an atheist lawsuit””for now.
Today, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s high-profile decision that the longstanding clergy housing allowance was unconstitutional. The 60-year-old tax break excludes the rental value of a pastor’s home from their taxable income.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) challenged the law last year in Wisconsin, and federal judge Barbara Crabb agreed the allowance violated the First Amendment by providing “a benefit to religious persons and no one else, even though doing so is not necessary to alleviate a special burden on religious exercise.”
Read it all.