• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Christian Action League

Defending North Carolina Families and Christian Heritage

  • Home
  • About CAL
    • Our Director
    • Statement of Faith
  • Connect
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Pro Life
  • Marriage
  • 1st Amendment
  • Alcohol
  • Gambling
  • Marijuana
  • Rev. Creech’s Commentary
  • Other Issues
You are here: Home / Featured / Appeals Court Saves Clergy Tax-Free Housing Allowance

Appeals Court Saves Clergy Tax-Free Housing Allowance

By Melissa Barnhart
Christian Post
March 18, 2019

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled Friday that a law giving clergy an exemption from paying income taxes on their housing allowance is constitutional. The ruling protects religious leaders nationwide from having to pay nearly $1 billion more each year in taxes.

The court’s unanimous decision in the case Gaylor v. Mnuchin reversed a district court’s ruling in 2017 in favor of the atheist legal group Freedom From Religion Foundation, which argued that excluding pastors’ housing allowance from their taxable income was unconstitutional.

A group of clergy who rely on the housing allowance appealed that decision to the Seventh Circuit and were represented by the law firm Becket.

“The tax code treats ministers the same as hundreds of thousands of nonreligious workers who receive tax-exempt housing for their jobs — that’s not special treatment, it’s equal treatment,” said Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, which defends religious rights. “The court rightly recognized that striking down the parsonage allowance would devastate small, low-income houses of worship in our neediest neighborhoods and would cause needless conflict between church and state,” he added. Read the rest of this entry

Share this:

  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Featured

Primary Sidebar

A Special Message from Dr. Mark Creech

Archives

Cartoons

More Cartoons

Legislative Wrap-ups

RSS ONN News

Verse of the Day

Click here to visit BRC News

Copyright © 2023 Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc · Web Design by OptimusMedia.com · Log in