August 9, 2001 | Read Time: 1 minute
A federal judge has imposed tax penalties on a former Baptist pastor, putting an end to a $5.9-million tax case against his Indianapolis church.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker ordered the Rev. Gregory J. Dixon, pastor emeritus of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple, to pay the government $136,610 for income taxes that he failed to pay from 1983 to 1986. Mr. Dixon said he agreed to the judgment, a separate claim from the tax case against the temple, in order to end the conflict with the I.R.S.
The move was the last stage in the I.R.S. case against Mr. Dixon and his temple. United States marshals seized the temple building in February to satisfy a tax debt of $5.9-million the church owed for failing to withhold employment taxes from the wages of about 60 employees from 1987 to 1993. Mr. Dixon said his church was governed only by God’s law and was not subject to taxes.
