You usually do a column on Easter Sunday that covers the Bible's approach to taxes. What brought this to mind was the Palm Sunday Bible reading, which describes a crowd of people in front of Pontius Pilatecharging Jesus of wrongdoing. Among their charges: "We found this man misleading our people; he opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar." Did Jesus oppose the payment of taxes?
R.K., via email
First of all, Jesus is risen! Alleluia!
In Matthew 22:15-22, the Pharisees ask Jesus a tough question: "Tell us … is it against our law to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?" Jesus responds, "Why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin for paying the tax!" They brought him the coin and he asks them, "Whose face and name are these?" "The Emperor's," they answer. So Jesus says to them, "Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God."
So, Jesus did not oppose the payment of taxes. In fact, Jesus paid taxes. We turn to Matthew (who, by the way, was a tax collector before being called to become one of Jesus' disciples) again. Matthew 17: 24-27 relates the story of a group of tax collectors asking St. Peter, "Does your teacher pay the … tax?" Peter's answer, "Of course," is followed by Jesus instructing Peter as follows: " … go to the lake and drop in a line. Pull up the first fish you hook, and in its mouth you will find a coin worth enough for my tax and yours. Take it and pay them our taxes."
Other parts of the Bible focus on taxes and tax collectors. Since Matthew, the aforementioned tax collector, understood how despised this group was, his Scripture contributions are scathing. One of the milder efforts follows per Matthew 9:10. "While Jesus was having a meal in Matthew's house, many tax collectors and outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table. Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with such people?' Jesus heard them and answered, 'I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.'"
There are parts of Scripture in which taxes and tax collectors are treated kindly. John the Baptist instructs the tax collectors in Luke's Gospel. Specifically, Luke 2:12-13 — "Some tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, 'Teacher, what are we to do?' Don't collect more than is legal, he told them." And in Romans 13:6-7, St. Paul writes, "That is also why you pay taxes, because the authorities are working for God when they fulfill their duties. Pay, then, what you owe them; pay your personal and property taxes, and show respect and honor for them all."
Tax Talk is written by Ken Milani, professor of accountancy at the University of Notre Dame, and Claude Renshaw, emeritus professor of business administration at Saint Mary's College. It will appear in The Tribune's Business section on Sundays until April 17. Send your questions via email to milani.1@nd.edu or crenshaw@saintmarys.edu, or snail mail to The Tribune at 225 W. Colfax Ave., South Bend, 46626. Questions cannot be answered personally, but Tax Talk will try to reply to as many as possible in the column.
