Saturday, December 7, 2013

Putting the Tax Squeeze on Clergy?

By on 12:07 AM


Putting the Tax Squeeze on Clergy?The average pastor in America could soon be facing personal financial pain after a federal judge in Madison, Wis., recently ruled that a tax free housing allowance currently enjoyed by clergy under the protection of a nearly 60-year-old law is "unconstitutional," and pastors are not happy about it.
The ruling was handed down just over a week ago in a lawsuit filed by the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and named U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel as defendants.
It now paves the way for a legal challenge to the law that permits the tax free pastoral housing allowances, which a WCNC report estimates amounts to as much as $1 billion annually.
Pastors like Doug Webster of The Following, a church in Lake Forest, Calif., however, disagree with U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb's opinion.
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/pastors-decry-federal-judges-decision-arguing-that-tax-free-housing-allowance-for-clergy-is-unconstitutional-109991/
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