Madison, USA - The Freedom From Religion Foundation wants a federal tax provision that allows church ministers' tax breaks on housing costs declared unconstitutional.
The Wisconsin State Journal reports (http://bit.ly/qcnPUM ) that the organization filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Madison, claiming the provision violates the Constitutional provision separating church and state.
The Madison-based foundation is challenging the constitutionality of Section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code that allows "ministers of the gospel" to exempt the costs of homeownership or rent from their income.
According to the lawsuit, ministers who qualify for the exemption can exclude the costs of everything from a down payment and home mortgage to maintenance costs and equipment from income for tax purposes.
The exemption was adopted in 1954, "as a reaction to the Cold War antipathy to atheism" and was intended to subsidize and favor churches, the lawsuit said.
In order to apply, however, the IRS must review sensitive and intrusive information to decide whether certain activities qualify and whether a person is a member of the clergy.
"These and other determinations result in 'excessive entanglement' between church and state contrary to the Establishment Clause," the lawsuit states.
The IRS "is regularly required to make purely religious determinations" in administering the clergy exemption, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit asks that the provision be declared unconstitutional and that the Internal Revenue Service be barred from allowing it.
John Witte, director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University in Atlanta, said this is not the first time the provision has been challenged. He expects the case to gain little traction.
"This is a pretty easy case," Witte said. "I think the Supreme Court has made it clear that tax exemption cases are for the legislature, not for the courts, to decide."
The case has been assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker.