Tax tax tax - Tasmanian government

This should not surprise us, Labor are a form of social democrats, with the ALP continuing its membership of the Socialist International. Christians in this land need to start understanding the impact of one’s worldview. Ideas have consequences. The socialist agenda is regeneration via the nanny state robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Wealth redistribution has been around for centuries. We are all feeling the effects of it now. Your capacity to give to the; church, poor, missionaries, etc is hampered by the government taking what is yours to redistribute it to those who have less. A Biblical discussion on taxation is needed. What should we as Christians be looking for in local and federal taxation systems? Does the Bible give answers? Well, I believe it gives the blueprints for how society is to be governed, to the glory of God. We need to do the studying and praying.

Many Christians want to draw stark distinctions between communism and socialism. But the underlying humanistic ideology of state ownership and autonomous man is consistent. The difference is found in how societal change is instigated, communism seeks violent revolutionary change. However, it is interesting to note that Marx, author of the Communist Manifesto, saw himself as a scientific socialist. He saw socialism as merely a transitional stage between capitalism and communism.^[2] You cannot separate socialism from communism. They are explicitly linked. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics informs us that communism is simply a subset doctrine of socialism.^[3] Communism is the place you logically get to after granting the State unbridled power.

Let me remind you of exactly what socialists seek to accomplish. It is expressed in numerous and sophisticated ways today, but at heart the cry of socialism has not changed since Marx & Engels’ Manifesto of the Communist Party. In their view a well developed communist (socialist) society had the following ten features:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production..."^[4]

In other words they seek to reconstruct the Tower of Babel in the form of the sovereign State. But we know the Bible teaches a limited State, who is to purge the land of evil (Ro. 11), to provide societal peace for the church to freely preach the Word. The State must provide its citizens with private property protection. The eighth commandment; "thou shalt not steal" must be enforced by the government in all instances. Government is not exempt from this. Stealing is stealing! Whether it be an individual shoplifter or government inflation, taxation or wealth redistribution, stealing is theft. The Bible does speak of taxation. However, there is no discussion on the clear limitation of taxation. It is important for us to realise that the overarching taxation goal must be to allow the government to do no more than the Bible authorizes it to do. If room is given to government it will expand to claim more and more sovereignty. In Deuteronomy 17:14-20 God places limitations upon Israelite kings. We should use these principles when considering government authority, size and power. This passage clearly does not have a socialist bent of greater power, authority and might. The king is to be limited, thus the government is to be limited. If not, man’s sinful nature will drive him to ever increase the bounds of governmental authority. A major sided effect of this is the decrease in responsibility, authority and opportunity for the individual, family and church. It is clear in a number of things; 1. a large centralized government with extensive power is not appropriate. “Taxation therefore should be discussed, above all, in terms of limiting the expansion of the state, especially the central government.”^[5]

When discussing taxation those who favor a graduated system (i.e. the richer you are the more you are taxed) are breaking God’s commandments in not treating people equitably (Exodus 12:49 ) and failing to show impartiality (Leviticus 19:15 , James 2:1-13 ). Some point to Exodus 30 and indicate that the government is authorized to take a head tax, and amount per person. It must be made clear that this head tax was a specified amount. A shekel was paid upon reaching 20 years of age, no matter your social standing. What must also be highlighted is that this tax was probably an ecclesiastical tax, not civil. North points out that this is the case because the head tax was “calculated as a shekel of the sanctuary, which was a separate, ecclesiastical coin. This was blood money. It was paid on a man's entry into God's holy army, which was both priestly and civil.”^[6]

What about income tax? The ability of a civil government to tax citizens income is found within the Bible, in Egypt under the Pharaoh (20% was considered a tyranny in Genesis 47 ) and Israel's kings (10% was considered a tyranny in 1 Samuel 8:14-17 ). These are the only two references to income tax in the Bible. Note that the tax is a flat rate (i.e. no graduation) and it was capped at 10% or 20%, these upper limits being considered tyrannical. The following graph show the continued increase in government income via taxation in Australia^[7]:



Let me conclude with the words of Charles Spurgeon:

I fear lest in any of you there should be even the least measure of despising the one lost sheep, because of the large and philosophical methods which are now so loudly cried up. I would not have you exchange the gold of individual Christianity for the base metal of Christian Socialism. If the wanderers are to be brought in, in vast numbers, as I pray they may be, yet must it be accomplished by the bringing of them in one by one. To attempt national regeneration without personal regeneration is to dream of erecting a house without separate bricks. In the vain attempt to work in the gross, we may miss the practical result which would have followed working in detail. Let us settle it in our minds that we cannot do better than obey the example of our Lord Jesus, given us in the text, and go after the one sheep which has gone astray.^[8]

End Notes

[1]Business Tax and Regulation Reference Group, 2009, Submission to the review of Australia's Future Tax System, p. 3, viewed: http://taxreview.treasury.gov.au/content/submissions/post_14_november_2008/Business_Tax_and_Regulation_Reference_Group_20090623.pdf.

[2] McLean, I & McMillan, A, 2003, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press Inc., New York, p.497.

[3] Ibid., McLean & McMillan, p. 497.

[4]Engels, F & Marx, K, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Marx/Engels Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2004.

[5] North, G, 2005-2009, Taxation in the Bible, viewed: http://www.garynorth.com/public/2315print.cfm.

[6]Ibid., North.

[7]Australia’s future tax system, History of Australia's tax-transfer system, Fact Sheet, viewed: http://taxreview.treasury.gov.au/content/content.aspx?doc=html/Publications/Fact%20Sheets/History_Australias_Tax_Transfer_System.htm.

[8] Spurgeon, C, 1889, One Lost Sheep, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, p. 310, viewed: http://www.americanvision.org/article/spurgeon-on-socialism/.