When we last blogged about the “seemingly innocuous five line tax benefit” in Section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code, a District Court judge in California was reviewing a complaint filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit membership organization challenging this 90 year old provision.
Eight years after President Bush signed the new law on May 20, 2002, Judge Shubb of the Eastern District of California (on May 21, 2010) declined to dismiss the latest challenge to the parsonage exemption. A finding of unconstitutionality can cost clergy billions of dollars in tax over the next few years. This burden would likely be passed on to the religious institutions that employ clergy.