Michael and Marla Sklar - Page 14

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          for tuition and fees that they paid for their children’s                    
          religious education that year.  Our decision was affirmed on                
          appeal by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in                
          Sklar v. Commissioner, 282 F.3d 610 (9th Cir. 2002), amending and           
          superseding 279 F.3d 697 (9th Cir. 2002).                                   
                                       OPINION                                        
          A.   Whether Petitioners May Deduct Tuition and Fees They Paid to           
               Orthodox Jewish Day Schools During 1995                                
               1.   Petitioners’ Contentions                                          
               Petitioners contend that they may deduct as a charitable               
          contribution $15,000 of the $27,283 they paid to Emek and Yeshiva           
          Rav Isacsohn in 1995.5  They deducted about 55 percent of those             
          payments because that was the portion of the school day that each           
          school estimated was devoted to religious studies.                          
               Petitioners contend that:  (a) The religious education that            
          Emek and Yeshiva Rav Isacsohn provided their children is an                 
          “intangible religious benefit” as defined in sections 170(f)(8)             
          and 6115, and payments for intangible religious benefits are made           
          deductible by those sections; and (b) respondent’s disallowance             
          of their charitable contribution deduction for tuition and fees             
          violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the             
          U.S. Constitution because the Commissioner allows members of the            

               5  We separately discuss whether petitioners may deduct $175           
          of this amount they paid for Mishna classes.  See Opinion par. A-           
          5, below.                                                                   





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