Michael and Maria Sklar, an Orthodox Jewish couple in L.A., have taken the IRS to court to convince a tax judge to let them deduct their children’s religious school tuition, an illegal practice which has earned them several audits. Michael Sklar (an accountant, are you suprised?) centers their case around a secret agreement between the U.S. government and the Church of Scientology that allows Scientologists to deduct their “spiritual counseling” costs from their taxable income (hmm…charging money for spiritual counseling. Uh, wouldn’t that be the difference between a religion and a cult?)
Of course it’s outrageous that the celebrity “religion” gets exempted while others do not, but if the Sklars win their case, the IRS will have to allow everyone to claim deductions for all religious instruction. Yes, even the parents of Madonna’s Kabbalah midgets. This means less money for public schools, not to mention a small, fallen-by-the-wayside thing called “separation between church and state.” We know we live in Jesusland now, but only a couple of Jewish parents would have the chutzpah to take on the IRS. Let the judge repeal the Scientology clause and tell the Sklars to suffer from taxes like the rest of us.