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Author Topic:   According To IRS, Atheism Is A Religion!
Randall
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posted August 22, 2013 04:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall        Reply w/Quote
The leader of an atheist group sued because she didn't believe she qualified for tax exemptions afforded to clergy. When the government says she does qualify - as a minister - she got even angrier.

"We are not ministers," Annie Laurie Gaylor, chief of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, told The Tennessean newspaper. "We are having to tell the government the obvious -- we are not a church."

The lawsuit is over the personage exemption for clergy, which allows ministers to claim part of their salary as a tax-free housing allowance.

Gaylor's Madison, Wisc.-based group is organized, united by faith that there is no deity, and essentially builds fellowship around those beliefs. Thus, the Department of Justice filed a brief stating that Gaylor, as the group's leader, is eligible for the exemption since atheist groups can essentially function as a religion.

That complicates the foundation's federal lawsuit, first filed in 2009, after the foundation board voted to give Gaylor and her husband Dan Barker a housing allowance of $15,000 per year. The couple then claimed they didn't qualify for the same tax exemption as clergy so the foundation sued the federal government. In August 2012, a federal judge ruled the case can move forward.

But the Justice Department contends that since Buddhism or Taoism don't include a belief in God and are still considered religions, atheism could qualify as well. Thus, a minister can be seen as a spiritual leader and provide services for a religious organization - and a belief in God isn't legally necessary.

"Plaintiffs may not presume that a law's reference to religion necessarily excludes beliefs that are specifically non-theistic in nature," the government argued in a motion to dismiss the suit.

Gaylor contested, "That's not what we are after."

The foundation first filed the legal challenge to the exemption in 2009 in California, but later dropped the suit due to concerns about standing. It re-filed the suit in Wisconsin in 2011.

Larry Crain, a First Amendment attorney and president of the Church Law Institute, told The Tennessean the government might be right.

"They make an interesting point," he said. "If they apply for the exemption, they might get it."
http://news.yahoo.com/atheism-religion-government-says-yes-tax-purposes-141610417.html

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Randall
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posted August 23, 2013 12:34 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall        Reply w/Quote
I can imagine a clergy of nonbelievers.

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Faith
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From: Bella's Hair Salon
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posted August 24, 2013 09:25 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Faith        Reply w/Quote
The IRS is a religion, with the Federal Reserve as their god, Congress as their clergy, and tithes being wrenched out of the taxpayers' (the faithfuls') hands.

In heaven we become Ben Bernanke and can make all the money we want out of thin air!


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Randall
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posted August 24, 2013 02:11 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall        Reply w/Quote
If the IRS is a religion, I'm an atheist.

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Randall
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posted August 25, 2013 12:20 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall        Reply w/Quote
Actually, tithing is voluntary, and so are income taxes, but the IRS wants you to think voluntary compliance actually means compulsory.

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Catalina
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posted August 25, 2013 06:08 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Catalina        Reply w/Quote
So have you had much luck with not complying, Randall?

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Randall
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posted August 25, 2013 07:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall        Reply w/Quote
I know the truth but play their game.

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Randall
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posted November 10, 2013 04:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall        Reply w/Quote

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Randall
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posted January 30, 2014 02:19 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall        Reply w/Quote
The IRS are going to hate me when I get a law degree.

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Randall
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posted January 31, 2014 01:51 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall        Reply w/Quote
I'm just going to ensure that they follow their own procedures and the tax law as it stands. They like to bluff a lot.

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hypatia238
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posted February 27, 2017 11:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for hypatia238        Reply w/Quote

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