God and the IRS : accommodating religious practice in United States tax law

Seventy-five percent of Americans claim religious affiliation, which can impact their taxpaying responsibilities. In this illuminating book, Samuel D. Brunson describes the many problems and breakdowns that can occur when tax meets religion in the United States, and shows how the US government has too often responded to these issues in an unprincipled, ad hoc manner. God and the IRS offers a better framework to understand tax and religion. It should be read by scholars of religion and the law, policymakers, and individuals interested in understanding the implications of taxation on their religious practices.

Introduction -- Religion and the state -- On making the tax law -- Accomodation in the intersection of religious practice and the tax law -- Taxing citizens of the kingdom of God -- Housing clergy -- Neither a borrower nor a lender be -- Deductible contribution or purchase of religious benefit? -- A right to tithe? -- Without purse, scrip, or taxes -- Religious communitarians -- A framework for religious tax accomodation.