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California couple seeks religious tax break, citing Scientologists
More articles on this topic: LOS ANGELES (AP) - A lawyer for an Orthodox Jewish couple claimed Monday the Internal Revenue Service has unfairly refused to allow tax deductions for their children’s religious schooling.
Michael and Marla Sklar claim that since Church of Scientology members are allowed to write off the cost of spiritual counseling sessions, they should be allowed to write off their children’s Jewish school tuition.
The nonjury trial opened Monday in U.S. Tax Court before Judge John O. Colvin.
The Sklars brought the lawsuit after the IRS ruled their deductions were invalid. The couple’s attorney, Jeffrey Zuckerman, argued the First Amendment prohibits the IRS from discriminating on the basis of religion.
However, Louis B. Jack, an attorney for the IRS, said a ruling in the Sklars’ favor would lead “millions of Americans to start deducting religious school tuition.”
“Existing case law is clear, deduction for religious school tuition is illegal, period,” Jack said.
Michael Sklar, an accountant, testified he amended his 1991 tax return in 1993 to claim part of his children’s tuition as a charitable contribution. “The same benefit is given to a particular sect, Scientologists, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be applied to someone else,” he said.
He said his move was prompted by the 1993 accord reached between the IRS and the Church of Scientology that gave the church tax-exempt status, and allowed members to write off the cost of spiritual counseling sessions. The agreement was not made public, but a copy was ultimately leaked to The Wall Street Journal.
A telephone call to an attorney for the Church of Scientology International was not immediately returned. The church is not a party to the lawsuit.
Sklar was allowed the deduction for several years because of confusion about whether he was a Scientologist; after a 1994 audit, the IRS disallowed it. The couple sued in 1997 and lost. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the tax court ruling.
The current lawsuit was filed in 2001 over a 1995 tax return in which the Sklars claimed about $15,000 in religious deductions for four of their children.
The judge said he would consider whether to allow as evidence the 1993 agreement between the IRS and Scientologists in the current trial.
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