The “housing allowance” tax deduction from income for full time employment as a religious minister is true.
The change occurred as so many ministers’ housing situation changed from simply living in a home owned by the church (a “parsonage”) and not having a home & equity in a home of their own, to being given a “housing allowance” by the church, to help defray a minister’s monthly costs of having to obtain a home of their own.
Ministers’ salaries were usually meager “back in the day” and still are. Average Christian ministers salaries before the 2008 recession began were between $25,000 and $40,000.
I guess constitutional arguments cannot be won on an income basis, and equal protection sentiments might prevail in this case.
How might the churches lobby to keep the same level of income protection their ministers now have?
I could see some of them lobbying to get the “housing allowance” deduction eligibility expanded to include anyone, not religious ministers only, who qualifies by income, with the churches lobbying for an income level like their average ministers’ incomes.
I am not proposing that, but I can envision some of our Liberal churches doing so.
The “housing allowance” tax deduction from income for full time employment as a religious minister is true
It’s not just the housing that they don’t pay taxes on, but often the lower rate that they in turn end up paying on that part of their tax that isn’t exempt. So the numbers you quote are deceptively low in terms of actual income received.
I think we might have fewer clergy voting and preaching as liberation theologists if they weren’t in effect subsidized heavily by the government. Either way, however, it is hard to justify the employees of religious organizations getting preferential tax treatment—even if the churches themselves are tax deductible (which always seemed off to me as a benefit in its own right).