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Court upholds constitutionality of parsonage allowance

Court upholds constitutionality of parsonage allowance

Court upholds constitutionality of parsonage allowance

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the constitutionality of the “parsonage allowance” that allows ministers to avoid income tax on a “rental allowance”” paid as part of compensation to the extent “used to rent or provide a home.” The Court says it “falls into the play between the joints of the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause: neither commanded by the former, nor proscribed by the latter.” The allowance was challenged by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that describes itself as a “nonprophet nonprofit,” and several of its officers. Their original case was dismissed for lack of standing because the officers had never applied for the allowance...

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