Judges Press IRS on Church Tax Break(Involves Preferential Treatment For Scientology)

Judges Press IRS on Church Tax Break(Involves Preferential Treatment For Scientology)

www.nysun.com

A Jewish couple's bid to take a tax deduction they say the Internal Revenue Service reserves only for members of the Church of Scientology is getting a friendly reception from a federal appeals court, increasing the possibility of a ruling that could create a tax break for taxpayers of many religions who pay tuition to religious schools.

During arguments on the case this week, three judges who ride the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals expressed deep skepticism of the IRS's position that the way the agency treats Scientologists is irrelevant to the deductions the Orthodox Jews, Michael and Marla Sklar, took for part of their children's day school tuition and for after-school classes in Jewish law.

"The view of the IRS is it can unconstitutionally violate the Constitution by establishing religion, by treating one religion more favorably than other religions in terms of what is allowed as deductions, and there can never be any judicial review of that?" Judge Kim Wardlaw asked at the court session Monday in Pasadena, Calif.

"That is not at all what I said," a Justice Department lawyer representing the IRS, Ellen Delsole, said.

"That's the bottom line," Judge Wardlaw and a colleague on the panel, Harry Pregerson, both replied. "This does intrude into the Establishment Clause," Judge Wardlaw added.

The case stems from an agreement the IRS reached with the Church of Scientology in 1993 to end more than a decade of lawsuits, audits, and other enforcement actions involving the tax agency, Scientology entities, and church leaders. The church paid $12.5 million, while the IRS agreed to drop arguments that Scientology, which was founded by L. Ron Hubbard, was not a bona fide religion.

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Related News Links:
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[edit on 16-2-2008 by WhiteWash]

"If the IRS does, in fact, give preferential treatment to members
of the Church of Scientology -- allowing them a special
right to claim deductions that are contrary to law and rightly
disallowed to everybody else -- then the proper course of
action is a lawsuit to stop to that policy. 1 The remedy is not
to require the IRS to let others claim the improper deduction,
too."

What does it all mean? It means that The IRS gave preferential treatment to The Church of $cientology. It also means that with other organizations raising cain about it, that the CO$ may have their tax exempt status revoked at some point.
Epic Win!


www.nysun.com
(visit the link for the full news article)