Feds Say OK To Atheists on Religion Tax Break (?)

[stromboli]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... s/2678367/

The federal government wants to give Annie Laurie Gaylor a tax break for leading an atheist group.

Gaylor, head of the Madison, Wisc.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, wants to stop them — and she's asking a federal judge for help.

The standoff is the latest twist in a court battle over the parsonage exemption for clergy, a tax break that allows "ministers of the gospel" to claim part of their salary as a tax-free housing allowance.

Gaylor's organization says the exemption gives religious groups an unfair advantage. That makes it unconstitutional, the foundation's lawsuit claims.

But government lawyers say that atheist leaders can be ministers, too, since atheism can function as a religion. So leaders of an atheist organization may qualify for the exemption.

No thanks, Gaylor said.

"We are not ministers," she said. "We are having to tell the government the obvious: We are not a church."

The legal status of the parsonage exemption has been challenged for more than a decade ever since a dispute between the IRS and the Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California.

In 2002, the IRS tried to charge Warren back taxes after he claimed a housing allowance of more $70,000. The dispute landed in federal court and eventually Congress intervened by clarifying the rules for the housing allowance.

The allowance now is limited to either the fair market rental value of the house or the money actually spent on housing. Clergy can claim the tax break for only one house.

Gaylor, and her husband, Dan Barker, want the allowance eliminated. Their legal battle with the government over the exemption has been part chess match and part high-stakes poker game.

The foundation first filed a suit challenging the exemption in 2009 in California but later dropped the suit because of concerns about whether it had legal standing in the state. It re-filed the suit in Wisconsin in 2011, and in late August 2012 a federal judge ruled that suit could go forward.

The case is simple: The foundation board voted to give both Gaylor and Barker a housing allowance of $15,000 a year. But the couple says they can't claim that as tax-free income since they are not clergy.

The government disagrees.

In a brief, the Justice Department argued leaders of an atheist group may qualify for an exemption. Buddhism or Taosim don't include a belief in God and are considered religions, the government's lawyers argued, so why not atheism?

The Internal Revenue Service does require, among other things, that a "minister" be seen as a spiritual leader and provide services for a religious organization.

"Plaintiffs may not presume that a law's reference to religion necessarily excludes beliefs that are specifically non-theistic in nature," the government argued in a motion to dismiss the suit.

Larry Crain, president of the Brentwood, Tenn.-based Church Law Institute and a longtime First Amendment lawyer, said the government might be right.

"They make an interesting point," he said. "If they (atheist foundation officials) apply for the exemption, they might get it."

But the government's argument misses the point, Gaylor said. She's not filed a tax return claiming the allowance and doesn't know if she would accept one if the government allowed it.

"That's not what we are after," she said.

The foundation also is suing the government over several nonprofit laws that govern churches. They want government to enforce rules that ban pastors from giving political endorsements and to require churches to file the same Form 990 tax returns as other charities.

Gaylor said the government should not give religious groups any special treatment.

But Eric Stanley, senior counsel of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defending Freedom, said the First Amendment does give churches and other religious groups special privileges.

He said that too much government regulation of churches would interfere with religious freedom.

Stanley believes that the Justice Department has called the foundation's bluff in the parsonage lawsuits.

"What is really going on is that they don't like the housing allowance," he said. "The foundation wants the government to be hostile to religion."

Gaylor is amused by at least one part of the government's recent legal filings. She said the parsonage allowance was first put in place in the 1920s to help ministers to fight against "godlessness."

"They can't now reward the Freedom From Religion Foundation to fight for godlessess," she said.

Critics of the housing allowance say it is unfair to the general public. They pay more because clergy pay less.

Defenders of the allowance point out that most ministers and other clergy are considered self-employed and so pay higher tax rates than other workers. The tax allowance helps balance that out.

Crain doesn't see any court doing away with the parsonage allowance.

"It's part of the fabric of American life," he said.

Talk about muddying the waters. I'm not legal expert enough to see where this ultimately leads, but to put atheism supposedly on equal footing to me is dangerous. The idea of maintaining special exemptions of religion and then sidestepping the decision to remove it by declaring atheism as, in essence, a religion, nullifies the whole point of atheism- that it isn't a religion. What nonsense.

[GurrenLagann]

This is just... wow, speechless...

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Then this site out find ways to turn profit via any number of ways and declare it to be exempt from taxation and give moi a housing allowance to promote tooth fairyanism and when the holier than thous object point out all this kabooky..

[stromboli]

Then this site out find ways to turn profit via any number of ways and declare it to be exempt from taxation and give moi a housing allowance to promote tooth fairyanism and when the holier than thous object point out all this kabooky..

If so much as one person declares an allowance from the IRS based on atheism being a religion, it sets a precedent. Any action taken that groups atheism in with the "enemy", so to speak, tends to legally color us as members of the same tribe. After that, political aspects of atheists complaining about any religion becomes tantamount to Baptists bickering about Mormons. I see it as a dangerous precedent, personally.

[Poison Tree]

Talk about muddying the waters. I'm not legal expert enough to see where this ultimately leads, but to put atheism supposedly on equal footing to me is dangerous. The idea of maintaining special exemptions of religion and then sidestepping the decision to remove it by declaring atheism as, in essence, a religion, nullifies the whole point of atheism- that it isn't a religion. What nonsense.

If they declare that atheism is a religion and give atheist ministers a tax break, wouldn't they have to go whole hog on making atheism a legally recognized religion? Allow atheist chaplains in the military? Allow atheist organizations tax exemption in the same way as other religious organizations? Strip the tax exemption over political speech? Would atheism get a slice of comparative religion class? This would, I think, have far reaching (mixed) ramifications that I don't think either side has fully thought of yet.

[Mister Agenda]

I think they haven't thought out the possible ramifications of this. But bear in mind, the IRS can't declare atheism a religion, it can only treat it as equivalent to one for tax purposes.

[SGOS]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/20/atheist-religion-tax-breaks/2678367/

"Plaintiffs may not presume that a law's reference to religion necessarily excludes beliefs that are specifically non-theistic in nature," the government argued in a motion to dismiss the suit.

Way to tie up the court system!!

I'm a Microsoft Flight Simulator fanatic.  I do it every day.  I want a tax break!
But what's the governments big deal about atheists here?  Someone doesn't want a tax break and they're trying to force one on people?  The IRS must have been infiltrated by the Commies.

Actually, I sense an ulterior motive here.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Well, if atheists can muddy the waters enough it might just force the IRS and big bad gubnit in general to rethink the whole exemption issue altogether because the precedent may well be having to grant exemptions to any nut case who can dig up a handful of followers. Why not the Mansons? How about the Tooth Fairy? Donate $10 to make sure kids get their nickel under the pillow all tax free..Someone has to administer all those nickels and of course all those teeth.
Sure it's utterly absurd which often by shining the bright light on the absurd things actually get fixed so go ahead atheist ministers'. Take that tax exemption and build a mega broadcasting network to showcase just how utterly fucked thr system.really is.

[Broede]

I can see the religious zealots out there using this as a "gotcha" moment.  To try and use this to "destroy" atheism as we know it.  I hope nobody buys into this trap.

[The Whit]

I can see the religious zealots out there using this as a "gotcha" moment.  To try and use this to "destroy" atheism as we know it.  I hope nobody buys into this trap.

That's all it is.  Religious people hate diversity.  That's why religious people can be against other religions but be more afraid of those who have no religion at all.  We're the most different.  This is just an attempt to shade us another color of them.  As far as I'm concerned, they can go shove this up their ass.

[aitm]

Then this site out find ways to turn profit via any number of ways and declare it to be exempt from taxation and give moi a housing allowance to promote tooth fairyanism and when the holier than thous object point out all this kabooky..

 By the powers granted to me by me, I present thee, APA one "get out of jail free" card for using the word kabooky.

[stromboli]

We have "get out of jail free" cards?  #-o

[Hydra009]

Would atheism get a slice of comparative religion class?

IMO, it should anyway because of its close relationship and influence on just about every major religion throughout history, especially atheistic forms of religion growing up alongside their theistic counterparts.  The history of atheism is this really fascinating part of the history of religion that few people really get exposed to, much less in a formal setting.