Overview

This book explores the taxation and exemption of churches and other religious institutions, both empirically and normatively. This exploration reveals that churches and other religious institutions are treated diversely by the federal and state tax systems. Sectarian institutions pay more tax than many believe. In important respects, the states differ among themselves in their respective approaches to the taxation of sectarian entities. Either taxing or exempting churches and other sectarian entities entangles church and state. The taxes to which churches are more frequently subject - federal Social Security and Medicare taxes, sales taxes, real estate conveyance taxes - fall on the less entangling end of the spectrum. The taxes from which religious institutions are exempt - general income taxes, value-based property taxes, unemployment taxes - are typically taxes with the greatest potential for church-state enforcement entanglement. It is unpersuasive to reflexively denounce the tax exemption of religious actors and institutions as a subsidy. Tax exemption can implement the secular, non-subsidizing goal of minimizing church-state enforcement entanglement and thus be regarded as part of a normative tax base. Taxing the church or exempting the church involves often difficult trade-offs among competing and legitimate values. On balance, our federal system of decentralized legislation reasonably make these legal and tax policy trade-offs, though there is room for improvement in particular settings such as the protection of internal church communications and the expansion of the churches' sales tax liabilities.

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9780190853983

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Reviews

Comprehensive in its scope, yet nuanced in its analysis, Taxing the Church deftly explores the tensions between church and state in the tax context and offers a pragmatic path towards an appropriate resolution of these tensions by focusing on the question of church/state 'enforcement entanglement.' In an era of political and social polarization, in which church/state conflicts often generate more heat than light, Zelinsky has provided us with precisely what the debate needs: a commendably balanced, characteristically thoughtful, and highly original elucidation of the problem of taxing religious institutions. Walter Hellerstein, Distinguished Research Professor, Francis Shackelford Professor of Taxation, University of Georgia School of Law At the heart of the book is a valuable insight: once the state starts to tax, entanglement between the government and the religious organizations is inevitable. Therefore, the calls to remove tax exemption on the theory that it will result in a fairer and more neutral system leads to the government delving into the inner workings of religious organizations. For many, that may be a plus, but for many others, that may be a bridge too far. That is the debate we need, and it is teed up beautifully in Taxing the Church. - Marci A. Hamilton, Fox Family Pavilion Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Program for Research on Religion, University of Pennsylvania6R With great erudition and careful attention to the many complexities of our system of taxation and tax exemption for religious institutions, Professor Zelinsky makes a contextually sensitive case for taxation in certain contexts and not others. His discussion of 'enforcement entanglement' and 'borderline entanglement' is particularly rich and illuminating. - Marc O. DeGirolami, Professor of Law, and Associate Director, Center for Law and Religion, St. John's University School of Law Advocates on both sides of the religious exemption divide would be well served by reading this book and pondering its arguments. - Peter J. Reilly, Forbes

Author Information

Edward A. Zelinsky is the Morris and Annie Trachman Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University where he lectures on tax law. He is a graduate of Yale College, Yale Law School, and the Yale Graduate School. Professor Zelinsky's articles have appeared in the nation's most well-known legal journals including the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, and the Columbia Law Review. He is the author of The Origins of the Ownership Society: How the Defined Contribution Paradigm Changed America (Oxford University Press, 2007), and he is a regular contributor to the OUP blog.

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