In general, taxpayers can arrange their finances however they want. While failure to pay taxes will subject them to interest and penalties, the government generally does not exercise any significant control over how taxpayers choose to spend their money. There is a significant exception to this lack of oversight, though: payment plans. When taxpayers enter into a payment plan with the IRS, the IRS determines how much a taxpayer must pay each month based on her income and permissible expenses. The IRS’s administrative guidelines generally do not include tithes or other religious donations as permissible expenses. That does not prevent taxpayers from making religious donations, but if a taxpayer wants to make the contributions, she must cut back on other permissible expenses. Courts have consistently upheld the constitutionality of the IRS not providing accommodating a taxpayer’s religious donations in determining how much she can afford to pay.