Tax Court: Parents Cannot Deduct Payments to Their Children's Religious Schools, Despite Scientology Precedent

The Tax Court ruled yesterday in Sklar v. Commissioner, 125 T.C. No. 14 (12/21/05), that a couple's tuition and fee payments to their children's Jewish day schools are not charitable contributions because they received a substantial benefit from their payments and lacked charitable intent.

For prior opinions in the case, see:

• Sklar v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2000-118
• Sklar v. Commissioner, 282 F.3d 610 (9th Cir. 2002)

Joe Kristan observes:

The 1993 IRS settlement with the Church of Scientology came into play in the Tax Court today. Michael Sklar, a Los Angeles CPA, attempted to deduct a portion of tuition paid to send his children to a Jewish day school. He reasoned that if the Scientologists can deduct their "auditing" and "training" fees as charitable contributions, it's only fair to let him similarly deduct the cost of a religious education for his children. Fair or not, the Tax Court didn't agree. The Tax Court sidestepped the equal protection issue, falling back on established court rulings that religious eduction is not deductible as a charitable deduction.

For prior TaxProf Blog coverage, see here and here.  See Howard Bashman's post on the case here.