LTRP Note: The following news story is posted for informational and research purposes only. Lighthouse Trails in no supports the efforts of the FFRF.
“FFRF and 21 California Taxpayers File Historic Challenge”
FFRF Sues IRS, Geithner & California State over “Minister of Gospel” Tax Benefits
The national Freedom From Religion Foundation, along with 21 of its California members, has filed a nationally-significant federal lawsuit in Sacramento, challenging tax benefits for “ministers of the gospel,” commonly known as “the parsonage exemption.”
Ministers, who are paid in tax-free dollars, also may deduct their mortgage interest and property tax payments. Under both Federal and California law, allowances paid to “ministers of the gospel” are not treated as taxable income, unlike the situation for other taxpayers. Only “ministers of the gospel” may claim these benefits, so the statutes convey a governmental message of endorsement, unconstitutionally favoring religious employees and institutions over all others, the Foundation maintains.
The lawsuit was filed on Friday, Oct. 16 in California Eastern District Court, Sacramento office. Judge William B. Shubb will preside over the case. Attorney Richard Bolton, Madison, Wis., with local counsel Michael Newdow, Sacramento, represent the Foundation and its plaintiff members. The Madison, Wis.-based state/church watchdog serves as a national association for freethinkers (atheists and agnostics), and is the largest such association in the United States, with more than 14,000 members.
The Foundation seeks a declaration that, on their face and as administered, provisions allowing tax benefits for “ministers of the gospel,” provided for by the IRS and Treasury Department, violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. FFRF requests that the Court enjoin any allowance or grant of tax benefits for ministers of the gospel under §§107 and 265(a)(6) of the Tax Code. Similarly, the Foundation challenges Sections 17131.6 and 17280(d)(2) of the California Revenue and Taxation Code, which correspond to the IRS codes, and “have the same constitutional defects and infirmities.”
Defendants are Timothy Geithner, Secretary of Treasury, Douglas Shulman, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, and Selvi Stanislaus, executive officer of the California Franchise Tax Board, who are all providing tax benefits only to “ministers of the gospel,” rather than to a broad class of taxpayers. Click here to continue.
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