Palmer v. Commissioner
United States Tax Court
Petitioners are opposed, on religious grounds, to life insurance. They are active members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church which pays the tax on employers imposed by the Social Security Act and which has taken no official position in opposition to the life insurance aspects of the Act.
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Petitioners are opposed, on religious grounds, to life insurance. They are active members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church which pays the tax on employers imposed by the Social Security Act and which has taken no official position in opposition to the life insurance aspects of the Act. Held: Petitioners are liable for the tax on self-employment income under sec. 1401, I.R.C. 1954. The Social Security Act does not constitute an abridgement of petitioners' freedom of religion, nor are the exemption provisions of sec. 1402(h), I.R.C. 1954, unconstitutionally narrow in scope.
1Opinion of the Court
OPINION
Petitioners admit tbat they do not fall within the precise terms of the exemption of section 1402(h).2 They argue, however, with utmost candor and sincerity, that the provisions of the Social Security Act unconstitutionally restrict the free exercise of their religion by compelling them to participate in a life insurance program. The exemption of section 1402(h), they assert, is unconstitutionally narrow in scope since it extends a right or privilege to individuals with a particular religious belief only when they are members of a sect recognized as a body to have the same belief.3
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2Cases cited21 opinions
- Sherbert v. VernerSupreme Court of the United States · 1963
- Cohan v. Commissioner of Internal RevenueCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit · 1930
- West Virginia State Board of Education v. BarnetteSupreme Court of the United States · 1943
- Braunfeld v. BrownSupreme Court of the United States · 1961
- Helvering v. DavisSupreme Court of the United States · 1937
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3Cited by86 opinions
- Henson v. CommissionerUnited States Tax Court · 1976
- Reading v. CommissionerUnited States Tax Court · 1978
- Robert Shelton Jaggard and Marybeth Jaggard v. Commissioner of Internal RevenueCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · 1978
- Liberty University, Inc. v. Jacob LewCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit · 2013
- In Re Jacob R. Ward v. Commissioner of Internal RevenueCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · 1979
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