IRS Decision on the Churches of Scientology

It's about time someone printed the truth about the IRS decision granting tax exempt status to the various churches of Scientology and related groups in 1993.

Here's the true story on it, as printed in the St. Petersburg Times.

Scientology gets no special treatment

Re: IRS' "chosen people," editorial, March 25.

Contrary to the message conveyed in your editorial, Scientologists do not receive preferential treatment from the Internal Revenue Service. Scientology auditing and training are religious worship, not religious education. The U.S. Tax Court and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals both recognized this in the earlier tax case that Michael and Marla Sklar lost. As the 9th Circuit stated:

"The Tax Court concluded that the Sklars were not similarly situated to the members of the Church of Scientology who benefited from the closing agreement.... Religious education for elementary or secondary schoolchildren does not appear to be similar to the "auditing' and "training' conducted by the Church of Scientology."

The concurring opinion said that the IRS treatment of Scientology should be challenged if there were disparate treatment. But the plain fact is that there is no disparate treatment to challenge.

The St. Petersburg Times comments on the purported 1993 agreement between the church and the IRS, but no one at the paper appears to have read it. It clearly states as follows:

"The Service [IRS] acknowledges its obligation to interpret and apply the "gift or contribution' requirement of Code section 170(c) equally and consistently to the fundraising practices of all religious organizations that receive fixed donations from parishioners in connection with participation in worship and similar religious rituals or services."

The lie that Scientologists now receive preferential IRS treatment stems from critics' inability to look beyond the bottom line holding of the Supreme Court's 1989 Hernandez decision. The Supreme Court specifically declined to address, and thus left open for the future, a key issue - whether the IRS treated Scientologists unfairly by allowing members of other churches to deduct comparable payments to their churches. This specific issue was developed in subsequent litigation that culminated in a three-week trial before the U.S. Tax Court in April 1992, called Garrison vs. Commissioner.

After more than 10 years, I am appalled by the malicious falsehood of preferential treatment for Scientologists. Scientology auditing and training are religious services, not religious education. Donations for auditing and training are deductible to the same extent as, but to no greater extent than, donations by parishioners of other religions to secure access to worship and similar religious rituals in their respective faiths. Scientologists are not entitled to deduct - and do not seek to deduct - payments for their children's tuition at Scientology-related private schools.

The Sklars are free to argue that Section 170 of the Code should be interpreted to allow deductions for payments for religious education by taxpayers of all faiths. They likewise are free to try to prove that their children's Yeshiva school principally involves religious worship rather than religious education. But they cannot reasonably argue that an IRS agreement to accord equal tax treatment to payments for access to Scientology religious services somehow entitles the Sklars to deduct payments for their children's religious education. It is irresponsible for the Times to support this position.


-- Monique E. Yingling, tax counsel for the Church of Scientology, Washington, DC