Pastors’ housing allowance tax break update

Pastors and certain other church workers are allowed to deduct that portion of their salary used for housing from their taxable salary.  That “housing allowance” amounts to a huge tax break.  As we blogged about earlier, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has challenged that provision in federal court.  But in a parallel case, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the atheist group lacks “standing” to sue on a similar tax issue, since they have not been materially harmed by the current law.  Some experts are saying that this deals a “lethal blow” to the housing allowance challenge.  See Church LawandTax.com.