Why must churches pay tax?

By Joseph Edgar …
Let me write this article as a layman. I do not know anything about taxes and churches for that matter. The closest I know about churches is going in there when my cup has run over to pray and make penance and that is that. For taxes, it is worse I don’t even know the beginning and the end of taxes, so I am really skating on very thin ice on this matter.

For sometime now the issue of churches paying taxes has hit the limelight and surprisingly the churches are resisting. It’s funny why, still from a lay mans point of view, churches run schools, hotels, bakery’s, hospitals and all sort of other businesses. Others who run these kinds of businesses get taxed so why won’t they also pay taxes. This apart from the fact that they get captive market by reason of their church members patronizing them also gives them an unfair advantage over competition.

I once took Ill and went to my church hospital and was refused treatment because I had not paid the subscription. The fact that I make contributions at church services and that my wife pays her tithes, did not budge the people. They insisted that only permission from the Pastor would make them treat me, Ebola or no Ebola. So I rushed to the Pastor who promptly gave me the permission and I got treated.

This led me to all sort of thoughts. Who owns the funds freely given during church services, the Board of Trustees of these Funds, are they accountable to anybody, how are the profits shared and kept and who decides what. Why is the membership of the BOT not democratic, why are others not voted in. All these questions have been bugging my mind since that incident.

Read also: Another look at the Asset Declaration

Funds freely given by a group, should be administered according to set down rules and regulations guiding investments and business in the country. There should be no exceptions. How can a Pastor live like a rock star while the members are so impoverished and yet still pay 10% of this income to a pool they have no control whatsoever over.

The funny thing is that these churches own private universities, and yet the members cannot afford the fees. But it’s their tithes and contributions that lead to the berthing of these institutions. It is for this reason and much more that I shout from the highest roof top I can find and with the loudest voice I can muster, that churches must pay tax.

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