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Can State Exempt Only Bibles from Sales Tax?

Interesting article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:  ACLU: Extend Tax Break to All Religious Books:

A retired Atlanta librarian and a Sandy Springs bookshop owner are challenging a state law that grants a sales tax exemption for purchases of the Bible and other books pertaining to "Holy Scripture." Their lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, said if such works are exempt from sales and use taxes, other philosophical, religious and spiritual works should be as well.

"The law is written in such a way that minority religions don’t get the same tax exemption as better-known religions such as Christianity and Judaism," said Maggie Garrett, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, which represents the two plaintiffs. State law exempts from sales tax all "Holy Bibles, testaments and similar books commonly recognized as being Holy Scripture." The decades-old law also exempts "any religious paper … when the paper is owned and operated by religious institutions and denominations," but it does not define religious paper.

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One response to “Can State Exempt Only Bibles from Sales Tax?”

  1. HoWeCogitate Avatar

    Lonely ol’ Bible Bill

    The ACLU is suingbecause of a Georgia Law exempting Bibles from taxes, saying that it should apply to all religious books including Witches spell books. Their point may very well be valid, why should a Bible not be taxed when

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