27 Jun Atheist Group Decides Not to Appeal Housing Allowance Ruling
The Freedom from Religion Foundation, or FFRF, has decided not to pursue an additional challenge of the clergy housing allowance at the Supreme Court level. This means that clergy housing and parsonage allowance provisions will likely remain in place for tax year 2019 and beyond.
For those unfamiliar with court events, the legal battle over the clergy housing allowance has persisted for nearly a decade. FFRF claims that the clergy housing allowance favors clergy as a special class of taxpayer and penalizes ordinary taxpayers and 501(c)(3) organizations who lack such a provision.
FFRF initially won victories at the district court level in 2013 and 2017, but lost at Appeals Court. The next step for FFRF would be to appeal to the US Supreme Court, but they state on their website “after counting heads, we concluded that any decision from the current court would put the kibosh on challenging the housing allowance for several generations.”
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