Income Tax Deduction For Religious School Instruction in U.S.?
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
Agudath Israel of America has filed a brief in the appeal of a lower court
decision that denied a Los Angeles Jewish couple's attempt to claim a deduction
of the portion of their tuition payments that goes toward religious instruction.
Michael and Marla Sklar used a precedent -- the Internal Revenue Service's
agreement with another organization recognized as religious in the U.S. to allow
its practitioners to deduct the cost of certain religious studies and services
as charitable contributions on their income tax statements -- to make the claim
that their children's religious instruction in two Los Angeles yeshivos merited
the same consideration.

In 1994, Mr. and Mrs. Sklar claimed that the portion of their tuition payments
to Yeshiva Rav Isacsohn Torath Emeth Academy and Emek Hebrew Academy for their
children's religious instruction -- fixed by each of the two yeshivos at 55% of
their total tuition payments to the school -- should be deductible.

The lower court rejected the couple's claim and refused even to consider as
evidence the precedent in the other case, prompting the Sklars to appeal the
decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which is now considering the case.

Agudath Israel's amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief, written by New
York-based tax attorney Jay A. Friedman in conjunction with the organization's
chief legal counsel David Zwiebel and associate counsel Mordechai Biser, makes
the argument that religious education in yeshivos qualifies as an "intangible
religious benefit" which, under Congress' 1993 amendments to the Internal
Revenue Code, may be received by a donor without in any way affecting the
deductibility of the donation.

The dual instructional model that is the hallmark of the yeshiva day school
movement makes "each school, in effect, two schools in one: a religious studies
school whose function is to educate students in the traditions of the Jewish
faith; and a separate secular studies school whose function is to provide a
secular education in accordance with the requirements of state law."

That portion of tuition that is clearly allocable to the religious studies
program should accordingly be seen as a tax deductible contribution, says
Agudath Israel, especially in view of the IRS's policy with respect to the other
organization's payments.

The brief concludes with a citation of a recent article on the Sklar case in
Forbes' Magazine, whose headline includes the question: "What makes tuition paid
for classes in one religion more deductible than tuition for classes in
another?"; and which tells its readers: "Is your family's religious education
deductible? It depends on your religion." That response is entirely
unacceptable, asserts Agudath Israel, and the Court of Appeals now has the
opportunity to insist that yeshiva religious studies payments be treated no less
favorably than Scientology studies payments.