When Paying Taxes is Hard
by Bronwyn Lea
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Only two things in life are certain: death and taxes (or so the saying goes). If Jesus has removed the sting from death (1 Corinthians 15:55), isn’t there anything He could do about the sting of taxes? I hear the murmurs every time tax season rolls around: do we really have to pay taxes? And even if we have to shell out money to the powers that be (or face the risks of imprisonment), can we reserve the right to be grumpy about it?
What if we disagree with the way the money is being spent? If paying taxes feels tough at the best of times, it’s even harder if we fear the government is less than trustworthy in its fiscal practices—or if we see funding (or cutting) programs in a way that’s at odds with our ethical convictions.
The frustration with paying taxes spans across governments and generations. My parents were required to pay taxes to a government committed to Apartheid practices in South Africa, even though they objected to the policies. I live in the United States now, and have friends on both sides of the political aisle who have flinched and grieved at paying tax to a government who will spend those dollars on policies they believe to be dangerous. I myself have been a taxpayer here for 15 years even though I have none of the benefits and protections of citizenship—so, I get it. If you start a conversation about frustration with taxes around a dinner table most anywhere in the world, someone will have a story to tell about a dollar, shilling, rupee, or euro that was hard to fork over to the taxman.
It is some comfort to know that believers throughout the ages have shared in this pain, and can thus share their hard-earned… wisdom. Jesus lived in a community of people frustrated by taxes. The Romans were in charge, and money in their coffers fed an empire which kept Israel painfully under its thumb. The Jewish tax collectors who collected on Caesar’s behalf (and pocketed a hefty percentage of “commission” on the side) were loathed as traitors: how could they extort money from their own people to support such an awful government? The crowds were horrified when Jesus sympathized with tax collector Zaccheus: shouldn’t he have been having dinner with respectable people rather than “sinners” like him (Luke 19:3)?
So Jesus was concerned about the character and calling of tax collectors (Luke 2:12-13 specifically instructs tax collectors not to collect more than what was legal), but there are also multiple instances where Jesus spoke about taxpayers themselves. The first is in Matthew 17:24-27, when Peter relayed the crowd’s question as to whether Jesus would pay the temple tax. Even though Jesus is “greater than the temple” (Matthew 12:5-6) and as God’s son, would have had grounds for being exempt (Matthew 17:26), he still took care to make sure both his and Peter’s Jewish taxes for the upkeep of the temple were fully paid.
On another occasion, Jesus’ critics tried to trap him with a tax question. In Matthew 22:15-22 he was asked: “Is it lawful to pay tax to Caesar?” To a crowd full of Jews angry about Roman poll-taxes, if Jesus supported the tax, he would be seen as unpatriotic. But if he opposed the tax, he was in political danger. Jesus flipped the question on its head, exposing their (and our) hypocrisy. “Whose image is on that coin?” he answered. “Caesar’s,” they replied. “So give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”... with the implied challenge to them: and if you bear God’s image, then make sure you’re giving to God what is God’s. Ouch.
Here, then, is the Bible’s instruction to me as I sit down to do my accounting: pay your taxes. God has delegated His authority to human governments. “This is why you pay taxes,” explains Romans 13:6, “for the authorities are God’s servants.” So what are we to do? “Give to everyone what you owe them. If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”
As I do my taxes, then I am to be honest and keep my conscience clear. By all means, I can check my accounting and be smart. I should make the most of permissible deductions, but I dare not fudge the truth or twist the numbers. I am to be diligent and keep a clean conscience. God knows how many hours were really worked and whether that trip really was a business expense. The question is not what we can get away with on our tax returns, for it is ultimately God–and not the IRS—who will audit our lives. At the end of the day, paying taxes is what Jesus did and what He would have us do. We are made in His image, and I’m called to reflect his attitude even in nitty gritty tax calculations.
Bronwyn Lea
Bronwyn Lea is a South African born author, speaker, and bible teacher living in California. When she’s not chasing a house full of kids, she works at her local church, writes books, and heads up Propel Sophia. Find out more at her website, and connect on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
