Hernandez v. Commissioner Internal Revenue Service (1989)

If a person pays a religious or other non-profit group for services rendered, do those payments count as a charitable contribution that can be deducted from taxes? This ruling emphasized the difference between paying a non-profit group for its services and giving that same group a free gift. Just because the services are claimed to be religious in nature does not therefore mean that payments for those services qualify as a gift. However, this decision was made moot when the IRS made a deal with the Church of Scientology to allow payments for auditing and training sessions to be tax deductible as charitable contributions.

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