As Marc wrote last week, religious accommodations are the focal point of most of our law-and-religious controversies nowadays. When it comes to taxes, of course, the government accommodates religious organizations by exempting them (it does this for other charitable organizations as well). No doubt these exemptions, so much a part of American tradition, will come under increasing scrutiny in the years ahead.

A forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press, God and the IRS: Accommodating Religious Practice in United States Tax Law, addresses the topic. The author is Loyola University Chicago Law Professor Samuel D. Brunson. Here’s the description from the publisher’s website:

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.