A federal court of appeals recently upheld the constitutionality of the ministerial housing allowance. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled unanimously that the sixty-five year old tax provision does not violate the First Amendment clause that prohibits government establishment of religion. The decision reversed a federal judge’s 2017 opinion that invalidated the allowance as a violation of the establishment clause.The court ruled the housing allowance is constitutional under two of the U.S. Supreme Court’s church-state precedents. The allowance, the judges said, “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.”Aside from the question of constitutionality, the clergy exemption raises a question that many people—whether religious or not—are likely to be wondering: Why exactly do ministers receive a tax exemption for their housing allowance?
Source: Why do pastors receive a tax exemption for housing? | Acton PowerBlog
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