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.”
After more than five years of dispute and litigation, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra has finally successfully fired a volunteer. The Texas Supreme Court has held that the volunteer has no case against the Symphony and ordered a trial court to dismiss the claims.
The U.S.
The federal District Court in Maryland has refused to grant taxpayers a charitable contribution deduction for the value of a home they donated to a charity for “deconstruction” as part of the organization’s job training program. The Court has allowed a deduction for additional cash that the owners gave in order to offset some of the charity’s costs.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has asked the state’s Commonwealth Court to modify existing consent decrees for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and Highmark, Inc., a Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance plan, to ensure that UPMC “abides by its charitable obligations to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
