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Economic Confidential,
November, 2009
FEATURES
Churches and Mosques Should Pay Taxes
By McDonald Koiki
A look at the statement credited to the Executive Chairman of
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mrs. Ifueko Omogui-Okauru may
appear shocking to a lot of people. At first, some people may
quickly regard the statement as sacrilege, others may ask if she is
an atheist or an Africa traditional religion adherent. “Churches and
mosques are not exempted from tax payment because the constitution
says every citizen must pay tax irrespective of where he or she
works”. There is the need for Ifueko to create a clear distinction
between these religious organisations (registered non-profit making,
philanthropic entity) and the employees (nation's citizens) of these
religious organisations. I do not have problems with the employees
of these religious groups paying taxes, because Jesus the Chief
Labourer in the Vineyard, paid his tax as a citizen (Matthew.
22:17-21, Mark 12:14-17). But Jesus did not go to the synagogue to
ask the chief priests and scribes how much was in the coffers of the
synagogue so as to pay taxes from it. Rather, He overturned the
tables of the moneychangers and other traders in the synagogue, and
said “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made
it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:12 -13, Mark 11:15-17).
The constitution clearly exempts religious organisations from paying
taxes so far as they remain non-profit making philanthropic
organisations and do not engage in profit making ventures. But, what
do we have today? God's house has been turned into a den of thieves!
People who call themselves “men of God” instill fear in their
followers so as to extort money from them, live in mansions, drive
state of the art automobiles and some have gone as far as to buy and
maintain private jets while a larger percentage of their followers
are living in abject poverty. Why can't these pastors learn from
mother Theresa, who sold all she had, even cars that were given to
her as gifts were sold to ensure that she meets the needs of the
poor? Don't tell me that mother Theresa was upright because of her
religious sect. If you read the book entitled “In God's Name”, you
will see how corrupt the leaders of her religious sect are.
Some time ago, it was revealed that one of the popular churches here
in Nigeria with its headquarters along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway
acquired a new aircraft for N4bn ($28m). To allow its leader carry
out his calling more efficiently, the church bought a Gulfstream 4XP
which has the capacity of about 15 passengers depending on its
configuration and it was flown into Lagos from Bahamas. It is also
very embarrassing to see pastors competing on whose aircrafts are
bigger or better. On seeing what the above pastor did, another
pastor with his church headquarters along Ota-Idiroko Expressway,
who already flies around in a challenger aircraft, decided to order
another aircraft obviously bigger and better than the one acquired
by the first pastor who just bought his first aircraft.
Apart from costs of purchasing these aircrafts, the operational cost
is another point to consider, a lot of money is spent maintaining
these aircrafts and paying the crew, in addition to the landing and
parking charges. Unlike a commercial aircraft that is always in the
air, private jets spend more time on the ground and must be checked
before taking off.
According to an aeronautical engineer at the Murtala Mohammed
Airport in Lagos; “The same with refitting parts. These are parts
that are changed after every 12 or 15 calendar months whether you
are flying or not, so, acquiring a private aircraft means that you
are ready to be spending money to keep it going.”
Let us also look at the other side of the divide, where religious
scholars force children who are entrusted in their care to go
several kilometers away from their homes in order to beg for alms.
When these children return, the alms are collected from them while
they are made to return to the streets again for the collection of
more alms, thereby exposing these young Nigerian citizens to all
kinds of dangers just because of monetary gains.
It will be worthy to note that there are a few of these religious
leaders who are true and responsible to the service of God. They
spend all their collections and other personal earnings for God's
work, they provide for the poor, the indigent, the homeless, the
sick and the oppressed. These are men and women of God who do not
care about mundane things; they do not have earthly possessions to
their names because they want to see other people happy.
It may be safe for me to believe that Ifueko may have officially had
access to the bank statements of some of these religious bodies and
probably their leaders, she must also be aware of this extreme show
of affluence by these pastors before making her pronouncement.
After presenting the good, the bad and the ugly sides of religious
organizations vis-à-vis money, it is my opinion that Ifueko should
consider both sides of the coin and leave the issue of taxing
religious organisations aside and focus on those areas where she has
generated several billions of naira for her motherland in the past.
God is the owner of these religious organizations whether their
activities are good or bad, leaves God to judge and tax them. No
wonder He said He is going to start the judgment from His house.
Ifueko has done well for this nation in her office as the nation's
number one tax collector; she does not need anything that will
provoke God's wrath.
McDonald Koiki
mckosa2001@yahoo.com |
