No Place for Church in State of Bankruptcy

by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com

To hear tell from the Times Union, bankruptcy lawyers aren?t too keen on a revised federal tax statute that forbids debtors from deducting charitable contributions when calculating disposable income.

In effect, the ruling says you can?t pay God until you?ve paid Visa. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar?s.

Bankruptcy lawyers and other industry and consumer advocates see the current reading of the statute as a direct attack on consumers? religious freedom. And by ?some consumers? the law means ?above the median income? consumers. Those are the ones directly affected by the law. Others, like Albany Law School Professor Timothy Lytton, see it differently: ?While the government can’t interfere with your right to practice your religion, you can’t use your religion to get out of your legal obligations,” he said.

There?s little that can be done at the moment until the Republican-led Congress steps in and amends the tax law ? a Congress that appears to be in conflict with itself. While the majority of the GOP leans toward the religious right, he said, the statute it enacted now hurts some of the very people those lawmakers seek to protect.