Revd Dr Richard Turnball
Director of the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics.

Introduction

This short essay will reflect on the teaching of the Bible concerning taxation. Several are necessary. This discussion is not necessarily comprehensive: it does not cover every single aspect of relevant biblical teaching. The essay is not policy-orientated: it does not recommend one policy prescription or another. Instead, we are concerned with the principles and applications of taxation within Scripture and not the development of a systematic theology.

Another warning is also necessary. The political context at the time the Scriptures were written was markedly different from our own. Whatever their flaws, modern democratic systems do, at least, ensure that our rulers govern by consent. Whilst taxes can be, and are, levied unjustly and spent unwisely in modern democracies, there are, at least, constraints on our governments. Biblical times often saw taxes levied by the rich and powerful on the poor and oppressed – sometimes by an outside ruler. If the political order is structured in such a way that the poor, the widow and the orphan are at the centre of social concerns, we may (or may not) judge the role of taxation to be different from a situation where the political order, in practice, acts as an oppressor of the people.

Nevertheless, there are numerous references in the Scriptures to taxation and a variety of different types of taxation arise in different contexts. As such, despite these caveats, we can draw lessons from the scriptural references to taxation. The aim of this chapter is to set down the principles which shape the Bible’s teaching and deal with specific examples of taxation in the Bible.

Taxation can be an emotive issue and it is important that we start from first principles rather than run to selected and favoured verses (for example, Mark 12:17, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s”, and Romans 13:7, “Pay… taxes to whom taxes are due”).⁵⁰ We can then consider these verses and others in context.

Basic principles

Before considering the nature of taxes levied within the biblical narrative, in both ancient Israel and in the New Testament, we start with three important principles.

The creation mandates

The creation mandates are those concepts and principles established in the first chapters of Genesis (Gen) which, as Pope John Paul II said, are “decisive for man from the very beginning.”⁵¹ There are three such mandates to which we can refer for our discussion here. First, the principle of enterprise. Economic growth comes from humanity’s application of the resources and riches of nature set out in Genesis 2:8-15. We see here the description of the precious raw materials which God has provided in the creation: gold, aromatic resin and onyx, together with the waters of the river. The gold is specifically described as “good” (Gen 2:12). When combined with the second creation mandate, the mandate to work (Gen 2:15), we can see that part of God’s clear intention for every person is to work, harnessing the resources of the world in producing goods and services and adding value. Consequently, very quickly in the biblical story, we see the development of commerce and the specialisation of labour (Gen 4). The third creation mandate to note is the fundamental concept of human dignity which derives from humanity’s creation in the image of God (Gen 1:27).

How are these ideas relevant to discussions around taxation? They remind us of two basic aims and purposes within the economic system, of which taxation is part, if the economy is to reflect God’s purposes in creation. The first of those is the affirmation of prosperity and enterprise. The second is the value and protection of the human person. We should hope to see systems of taxation reflecting both of these elements.

Creation mandates are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for a theology of business, enterprise, taxation and work. The mandate to work also includes the mandate to stewardship. We might see prosperity as an essential element of the creation mandates, but not as something that should be unlimited. The mandates reflect the ideal set out in Genesis, yet we must also acknowledge the Fall and the impact of sin which, as we will see when we consider some specific examples, can impact both the positive uses of taxation revenue and contribute to some inherent dangers.

Private property

The principle of private property is important because taxation represents an alienation of private property in one form or another. This does not mean that taxation is wrong, but scriptural teaching on private property must have some relevance for a discussion of taxation. The Bible (and, indeed the Christian tradition) teaches the principle of private property both before and after the Fall. Rerum Novarum (1891) described the principle of private property as “sacred and inviolable.”⁵² God designed the creation with the principles of work and enterprise we have already discussed to provide for and support human life and, indeed family life. This implies private property.

There are injunctions in the Mosaic law against both the stealing of private property and covetousness towards the property of others (Exodus 20:15-17). Similarly, there are directives against the moving of boundaries (Deuteronomy 19:14, 27:17; Proverbs 22:28). In 1 Kings 21, we see Elijah’s rebuke of Ahab and Jezebel for Naboth’s murder and the theft of his vineyard. In Job 24:2, we see the condemnation of theft through the removal of boundary markers.

In 1 Kings 21, we see Elijah’s rebuke of Ahab and Jezebel for Naboth’s murder and the theft of his vineyard. In Job 24:2, we see the condemnation of theft through the removal of boundary markers. In the New Testament, we see the affirmation of property ownership through the reaffirmation of the commandments by both Jesus (Matthew 5:17-20; Luke 18:20) and Paul (Rom 13:9). Theft is condemned and thieves will not inherit the kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Individual house ownership is also affirmed in Acts 16:15 and in the example, among others, of the Bethany family (John 11).

However, the Bible also teaches that the ownership of property is not unlimited. The principle of stewardship is reinforced with the notion that “[t]he earth is the Lord’s” (Psalms 24:1). Property is intended to be used for the common good, as in the story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-4). The idea of government possessing property necessary for the governance of the people is not something that is criticised in Scripture.

We might conclude that the principle of private property provides for stewardship, order and peace. It is inviolable but not unlimited.

Limited Government

This links to the question of taxation as required by the lawful authority. The provision and role of kingship in ancient Israel provides us with useful insight into the nature and boundaries of that authority. The key passage is Deuteronomy 17:14-20. Moses warns the Israelites about the dangers of an autocratic and unlimited monarchy. The limitations here are instructive. First, and at the most basic level, the king must be one who submits to the Lord – in other words, the king must accept both legal and moral restraints on government (Deut 17:15). Verses 16 and 17 warn against the acquisition of horses, wives and wealth. There are many examples both in the Ancient Near East and elsewhere of despotic rulers building up military might (horses) and personal wealth (gold and silver) and of being turned away morally from the common good by all three (horses, wives and wealth).

Rather, the king must place himself under the moral law of God, submit to God and ensure that nothing could turn his heart away from God. In so doing, he will revere the Lord, recognise his own proper place as servant, will not lord it over his fellow citizens and will subject himself to the requirements of the law. We have a picture of a dutiful rather than a despotic monarch: one who serves rather than one who acquires.

The principle of limited government is not one of no government. Similarly, in applying this principle to ideas of taxation, we are more likely to conclude that balance and proportionality in the application of taxation provisions are the guiding features of government lawfully levying taxation.

Types of tax in the Bible

In the light of these basic principles, let us now turn to assess the different types of tax and their nature as set out in the Holy Scriptures. Manuel Jose and Charles Moore, in an article entitled ‘The Development of Taxation in the Bible: Improvements in Counting, Measurement, and Computation in the Ancient Middle East’, set out five different types of tax levied in the Bible.⁵³ Four of these taxes are direct taxes. These were levied on income and property or comprised either special assessments or poll taxes. One of the categories of tax is an indirect tax covering customs duties and sales taxes. We will consider each in turn and with an example.

The first reference to an income tax is in Genesis 47:26. This is concerned with Joseph’s management of the famine in Egypt. Joseph levied a tax at a flat rate of 20 per cent upon the income or yield of the land to provide for the anticipated future shortage. By the time the people of Israel had left Egypt for the Promised Land, the assessment was in the form of a tithe of 10 per cent for the purpose of supporting the priests and Levites together with the principle of first fruits. In both cases, the idea was to ensure a proper acknowledgment of lawful authority and ownership. In the first case, the priests were excepted; in the second, the tithes formed their income. The greater the amount produced, the more would be given to the lawful authority, but the proportion did not change: the tax was a flat-rate levy.

The second type of tax is a property tax. We see this enacted in 2 Kings 23:35. Jehoiakim was forced to pay vassalage to the Pharoah, and he did so by raising a tax assessment on the value of the land with each person paying according to their assessment. This tax seems to have been based on property value rather than any income from the land. We do not know whether the tax levied was a flat rate, although that seems most likely as the tax was on value. If this were the case, more tax would be paid if more wealth were retained in property.

The third type of tax is a special assessment which may, in modern parlance, have some similarities with a windfall tax. In 2 Chronicles 24:5, there is a temple repair tax levied. We are told that this was an annual tax, but we do not know the basis of taxation. The tax was hypothecated and only used for the purpose for which it was collected (2 Chron 24:12).

The fourth type of tax is a poll tax – a tax levied at a set amount per capita. There are, in fact, numerous examples of poll taxes in the Bible. These include a census tax per person (Ex 30:12); a flat one-third shekel worship tax (Nehemiah 10:32); a half-shekel temple tax in the New Testament (Mt 17:24-27); and the census tax levied at the time of Jesus’ birth in Lk 2:1-3 (we cannot be absolutely sure in this regard, but previous census taxes were poll taxes).

There were also various indirect taxes and customs duties mentioned in the Bible. In Ezra 4:20, there is reference to “tribute, custom, and toll” being paid to the king. The latter two almost certainly represented forms of indirect taxation such as levies on articles consumed or tolls. Romans 13:6-7 also seems to draw a distinction between taxes and revenue: both are due to the lawful authority and it is reasonable, as some commentators suggest, to view the former as direct taxation and the latter as indirect.

What can we conclude from this briefest of surveys on the types of tax seen in the Bible?

Firstly, we can draw attention to the variety of methods of taxation used, all of which were considered legitimate means of raising revenue. Secondly, there does appear to have been a greater use of poll taxes and indirect taxes as time went on such that these were the principal forms of taxation in the New Testament. Thirdly, we should note that the tax burden was one of the reasons cited for the division of the two kingdoms in 2 Chronicles 10:2-19 – described as the “heavy yoke upon us”.

Specific matters relating to taxation

There are several aspects of scriptural teaching relating to taxation and its context to which we should draw attention.

Role of government and the voluntary principle

The proper role of government is a significant topic in its own right and beyond the particular scope of this paper. There are several references in the Old Testament to the principle of gleaning (for example, Leviticus 19:9-10; Deuteronomy 24:19-21). In the Leviticus passage, which deals with various matters relating to property and economic ethics and justice, the people of Israel are told that, in harvesting their fields, they should not reap to the very edge or gather up the fallen gleanings. In the vineyard, they should refrain from going over and over to pick up the last grapes: these are to be left for the foreigner and the poor. The message of the Deuteronomy verses is the same. Scholars debate the degree to which such provision might be considered a form of taxation or, alternatively, voluntary provision in response to God’s divine will, but the latter is probably the explanation that fits best. Catholic social teaching throughout the ages has distinguished between these two different forms of response to the needs of the poor.

These passages place both some limits and some obligations upon enterprise, business and wealth creation for the purpose of providing for the needy. Limited social obligations are imposed on farmers in order to meet real social need. This does not obviate an appropriate and proper role for government support for those in need or to provide certain services financed through taxation. But this practice of gleaning involves limits to the law, and it is clear that responsibility for the poor is a shared enterprise. This is of relevance when we reflect further on the injunctions against heavy or burdensome taxation which also feature in Scripture. Indeed, Catholic social teaching has always recognised that the provision of welfare is a shared endeavour.

The Amos injunctions

Amos is a prophetic book that, in the tradition of the pre-exilic prophets, denounces the failures of the people of Israel to maintain the Lord’s standards of justice. The economy and business feature particularly in chapter 8. Weights and measures and unlimited commercial activity without regard for the poor and needy are condemned. This is a further reminder that, although the Bible endorses enterprise, entrepreneurship and wealth creation, this is accompanied by limits and obligations. Amos 5:11 warns us against the problems of heavy and exploitative taxation. The verse says: “you levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain”. However, it is important to note that the following verses make clear that the proceeds of this tax have been used for the personal benefit and aggrandisement of the rulers and not for the general welfare. The use of “impose” (“levy” is perhaps a more neutral term) reminds us that taxation requires consent, must be used for good purposes, and should not represent an excessive burden, especially upon the poor.⁵⁴

Render to Caesar (Mt 22:15-22)

Justin Martyr, in his First Apology chapter XVII, referred to Luke 12:48 in the context of paying taxes to the lawful authority. The biblical passage clearly has some relevance as the question was set in the context of paying tribute to Caesar. However, it may be that this passage is made to bear too much weight in contemporary debates about taxation.

The Pharisees asked Jesus whether it was right to pay the imperial tribute tax to Caesar. Jesus’s response, on inspecting the image of the emperor on a coin, was to declare: “render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”. The tribute tax was levied and paid by non-Roman citizens and had sometimes led to revolt. The question is set out in the passage as a trap, which Jesus recognises. Depending on the answer, he might be seen as either a collaborator or a political activist. Jesus is neither. The image of the emperor on the coin is a representation and claim of power. Jesus could have answered the question without the coin or his own counter-question. This episode is more about allegiance than taxation.

The point here is simply to note that there are many things that can be said about taxation from the Bible, but we should be careful not to proof-text or make passages bear more weight than they reasonably can if we are going to have a coherent overview and rationale for understanding taxation.

Taxes to whom due (Rom 13:7)

This is an important passage about lawful authority. Indeed, one overall conclusion we might begin to draw is the link between lawful governance, authority and taxation. Romans 13 is concerned with the nature of governance and authority. Government is ordained by God for the common good (Rm. 13:4), primarily the maintenance of law and order. The passage is then explicit in saying that, because government is ordained by God, we should pay our taxes. In other words, government is a lawful authority with the competence to tax (Rm. 13:6). Indeed, as verse 7 points out, we should pay taxes that we owe and revenue that we owe (covering perhaps both direct and indirect taxation as noted earlier).

What might we conclude from this passage? Perhaps we might say that a tax that is lawfully imposed by a lawful authority, and that is not excessive or exploitative, leads to a moral and holy obligation on the Christian who should pay the taxes and not seek to evade them. In our current complex environment, this may raise debate around the morality of avoidance as well as evasion. However, we should probably be clear that Scripture requires the lawful levying of a tax and the moral obligation is to pay the tax as levied by law. We will return to this in our conclusions.

Other matters

We should, albeit briefly, acknowledge some other relevant matters although there is not the space to go into detail. The first of those is the centrality of the family.

The family, both in form and nature, is a central feature of the biblical witness, including in respect of responsibilities within families and we would expect any taxation system to support and encourage family life. Secondly, we should acknowledge that any system of taxation involves some debate around redistribution which involves much wider debates around fairness, justice and social welfare. Any debate about redistribution, in turn, requires consideration of the extent to which this should be the responsibility of government, funded via taxation, and the community acting in a voluntary fashion. The latter is implied in the specific context of the early church (1 Cor 16:2). These are important matters, though beyond the scope of this particular paper. Suffice to say that, in debates around taxation, we should seek justice and fairness within both the tax system and within society as a whole and the responsibility for the poor does not lie with the state alone. In addition, the principle of the common good, the flourishing of all people, appropriate personal responsibility and the principles of justice in society should also shape our thinking. Finally, we should also note, that there is biblical support for the tax system providing incentives to work and, indeed, to allow people to retain the fruits of work (see 1 Timothy 5:17-18 referring to Deut. 25:4 and Lk. 10:7).

Conclusion

The conclusions are not very dramatic. However, since debates around taxation in the public square are often emotive and controversial, awareness simply of the basic principles of taxation in the Scriptures shows that this is an appropriate area for Christian leaders to contribute to debate. The fact that the conclusions are not very dramatic should lead people to temper their self-confidence in drawing very specific conclusions from Scripture about the ideal approach to taxation in a Christian society.

We can, though, say several things of a general nature. Firstly, Scripture teaches that taxation is a lawful activity of the proper role of government: “taxation is theft” is not a slogan that can be justified from biblical narratives. Secondly, the Bible teaches that there are limits to both government and its activities: hence exploitative taxation does not carry scriptural warrant. There is certainly a moral responsibility to pay lawfully levied taxation; but it is the responsibility of legislators to ensure the law achieves its proper purpose. Thirdly, Scripture seems to endorse a wide variety of methods of taxation, both direct and indirect. This should remind us that all governments, in seeking to raise tax revenue, will use various methods and we should not necessarily privilege one method (say, income tax) over another (say, a customs duty) from a biblical perspective alone. In fact, Scripture seems to give greater weight to indirect taxes and, if anything, to property tax more than income tax. Scripture does not appear to consider progressive taxation as a norm and prefers flat rates. This should, perhaps, at least warn us to be careful to ensure that modern taxation systems, even if they are progressive in nature, do not fall into the category of exploitation. Finally, we must note wider considerations around family, redistribution and the common good and recognise that the tax system will involve trade-offs between several of these matters and will not be the only mechanism by which the objectives will be achieved.

In short, a proper system of taxation, lawfully levied across a range of methods in pursuit of the common good, is a thoroughly biblical principle, provided the system is fair, balanced and does not exploit.

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50 All scriptural quotations are taken from the Revised Standard Version unless stated.

51 Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens (1981) 4.

52 Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum (1891) 46

53 M. L. Jose and C. K. Moore, ‘The Development of Taxation in the Bible: Improvements in Counting, Measurement, and Computation in the Ancient Middle East’, The Accounting Historians Journal, 25(2) (1998) pp. 63-80.

54 The New International Version (NIV) of the Bible has been used here for clarity.

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