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.
