Mansions For Jesus (Moses And Allah)
Laura Sanders writes for the WSJ that clergy members are allowed to buy or live in multiple homes tax-free:

The U.S. Tax Court ruled that Phil Driscoll, an ordained minister and Grammy Award-winning trumpeter who went to prison for tax evasion, didn't owe federal income taxes on $408,638 provided to him by his ministry to buy a second home on a lake near Cleveland, Tenn.

Under a provision of the tax code known as the parsonage allowance, first passed in 1921, an ordained clergy member may live tax-free in a home owned by his or her religious organization or receive a tax-free annual payment to buy or rent a home if the congregation approves.

The Tax Court ruling, made final in March, extends the parsonage allowance to an unlimited number of homes, which may be owned either by the religious organization or the clergy member.

In a 7-6 ruling, a panel of Tax Court judges sided with Mr. Driscoll's argument that the word "home" is equivalent to "homes," just as "child" is interpreted to mean "children" elsewhere in the tax code.

What crap.

According to the report, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, who lead Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Fort Worth, Texas, live in an 18,280 square-foot lakefront parsonage on 25 acres. The report said county officials valued the church-owned property at $6.2 million in 2008.

David Middlebrook, a lawyer for Mr. Copeland, says the house is "a wholly owned and appreciating asset of Kenneth Copeland Ministries....The ownership and operation of the parsonage is completely in accordance with IRS rules and regulations."

Mr. Driscoll, who won the Tax Court ruling, leads Mighty Horn Ministries of Greensboro, Ga., which had income of more than $6 million from 2005 to 2009, according to tax filings.

Mighty Horn, indeed. A far cry from the poor parson of literature, and while avoiding the taxes the rest of us pay.

From a comment below the WSJ piece:

Chris Petruzzi replied:

As a tax professor, I am surprised to read this. In addition to their housing allowance, many clergy receive untaxed educational benefits and tax deferred retirement plans. The housing allowance lets clergy who own a home with a mortgage exclude the housing allowance AND simultaneously deduct the mortgage interest as an itemized deduction. Lay taxpayers do not receive comparable benefits.

Somehow, I don't think this is what "the free exercise of religion" is supposed to mean -- pastors living for free while the rest of us pay taxes on our living quarters, and pick up whatever isn't being paid for theirs, thanks to their tax breaks.

Another comment noted that one religious organization had their CFO qualify to be a pastor so he could get the housing break, too.

Two more comments from below the piece:

Pat Galbraith wrote:

Has anybody noticed that we do not have a tax code? We have 66,000 pages of exception, exemption, reward preferred constituency, social engineering code. I can imagine that everything is exempt or taxed depending on what page you read or who reads that page. And you have to know what and where. Not even the IRS can, or will, tell you. When this thing was hatched a century ago, it was a simple system that affected few. Today, it is a (?) that affects everyone the way the governments wants (think controls you) them affected.

It's no secret that I'm a FairTax supporter. Repeal the 16th Amendment and ALL other Federal taxes on anyone or anything for any reason. Substitute an end user consumption tax on services and new goods. Except for a "prebate", so that no one would pay taxes up to the poverty level, there would be no exceptions and no exemptions. If the Reverend buys a new Cadillac, he pays the tax. If the Parish buys him a new Cadillac, same tax. If they choose to buy him a good used Cadillac - it's used, no tax.

The problem with our tax "code" is the power. That is what has to be reined in.

And:

Duncan McLellan wrote:

As "clergy" (not making mid six-figures like the subject of the article, but making enough not to be part of the 50% that pay no Federal Income Taxes), I am still baffled by the tax laws that govern my calling/profession. We can opt out of Social Security and Medicare. We can write off 55% of our gross income as "housing." We can also write off mileage for shut-in calls, hospital calls, even golf outings with parishoners... even the adult beverages we consume at the 19th hole. (I don't; many do.) Some of these deductions are standard fare, but I am aware that there are certain provisions for men of the cloth. As a man of the cloth, I can't for the life of me understand why. This is just one more example of how broken our tax "code" (appropriately named) has become. It makes no sense to be able to double-dip write-offs for housing allowances and multiple mortgages just because you tell people about Jesus.

More here.