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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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