RUSSIAVILLE, Ind. — An accountant in Indiana is under criticism after she told a lesbian client that she cannot file her taxes jointly as “married” due to her Christian convictions.
According to reports, Nancy Fivecoate of Carter Tax Service has served homosexual clients for years and continues to do so. She has specifically prepared tax returns for Bailey Brazzel for four years, filing her taxes as an individual.
Earlier this month, Brazzel took her partner Samantha, whom she “married” in July, to Carter Tax Service to file jointly as a couple for the first time.
Fivecoate told her that she couldn’t file the two jointly, as her convictions will not allow her to sign her name to the document. She offered to either file separately or provide a referral to another tax agency.
However, the women took to social media about the matter, and the press soon also began contacting the women for comment.
“It’s not professional to me to turn someone away because they do something differently than you would like,” Brazzel, 25, told the Indianapolis Star. “My taxes don’t have anything to do with our marriage. If you are going to run a business, you should be professional enough to do business with people from all types of backgrounds.”
“I don’t understand it,” she also remarked to Yahoo Lifestyle. “Nancy said she files tax returns for gay clients, but only if they’re not married.”
Fivecoate says that she has now received numerous calls attacking her over the matter, and her husband told Fox59 News that he is becoming concerned for the safety of their family.
“For many years I have had several gay clients. I still have gay clients,” Fivecoate said in a statement. “The LGBT want respect for their beliefs, which I give them. I did not say anything about their lifestyle. That is their choice. It is not my choice. Where is there respect for my beliefs?”
“I am not trying to destroy them by dragging them through social media. Why are they trying to destroy my name?” she asked. “I have made no comment on social media. Where is there respect for me and my beliefs?”
The women have since utilized another tax preparer.
1 Timothy 5:22 teaches, “[N]either be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.” The late Bible commentator Matthew Henry said of the passage, “We have great need to watch at all times that we do not partake of other men’s sins. Keep thyself pure, not only from doing the like thyself, but from countenancing it, or any way helping to it in others.”
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