Amish tax preparers get a hand from Rep. Peterson

Filing taxes online is supposed to be a breeze. But it isn't if you're one of Minnesota's 3,000 Amish citizens.

Last December, Congress voted to require those who prepare more than 10 tax returns to file online. That's a problem for Amish tax preparers, since their religious beliefs prevent them from using electricity.

Now, in part because of the efforts of Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., Congress passed a bill on Wednesday to accommodate the beliefs of people mainly known as the Old Order Amish.

The Taxpayer Assistance Protection Act of 2010 includes language similar to a bill Peterson filed last month to help the Amish. He called fixing the problem a "no-brainer."

The provision represents a rare interaction between the federal government and the country's Amish communities. The Old Order Amish Steering Committee, a national Amish organization, contacted Peterson's office in this case because an Amish tax preparer happened to hear about the law. While the Amish pay taxes on property and income, they avoid involvement outside of their communities and certainly don't pay Washington lobbyists to catch problems like this.

As a result, this sort of thing "happens all the time," said the Rev. William Lindholm, a Lutheran pastor and chairman of the Michigan-based National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom. He said this is only the latest instance of a national law overlooking the religious beliefs of the Amish, who have run up against a variety of laws from building codes to education requirements.

Minnesota's Amish live in 14 settlements, according to data complied by Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.

The largest is near Harmony. There is also a small community in Peterson's district near Long Prairie.

Joan Ruen, who runs Bluffscape Amish Tours in Lanesboro, Minn., said some of the Amish in her community seek tax help from non-Amish friends or professionals, but most still require paper forms to file their taxes. They worry the movement toward electronic submission will affect their ability to file taxes.

Lindholm praised Peterson for paying attention to the needs of the community. "I think it's an admirable thing," he said. "It helps everyone."

For Peterson, it was a chance to correct a law for constituents and do some cross-aisle work. Republican Rep. Joe Pitts of Indiana headed a list of co-sponsors on the original bill that ran the political gamut from Rep. Tim Walz, another Minnesota Democrat, to Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann.

"Congressman Joe Pitts and I have a bipartisan working relationship and we both have Amish Americans in our districts. So it made good sense for us to do this together," Peterson said. "To us this problem in the current law really seemed like a legal accident -- completely unintended and easy to fix. We wanted to make sure that people can comply with the law while also exercising their religious beliefs."

Hayley Tsukayama is an intern in the Star Tribune's Washington bureau.