AMERICA AND THE INCOME TAX
October 30, 2017
The featured picture is of the Internal Revenue Service located in our nations capitol, Washington DC. My topic today has to do with Federal Income Taxes, their history and the Bible view. It seems that it is difficult to find someone who wants to pay more tax and in fact most if not all of us would like to pay less taxes. There is currently a tax simplification plan and tax cut being considered in Congress and being touted as the biggest tax cut ever especially for the middle class. Is it of God?
There have been a variety of taxes imposed upon the citizens of this nation from its founding for the purposes of supporting the governments and it various functions. From time to time there have been taxes on income including during the Civil War being repealed in 1872. The current income tax had its origin on June 6, 1909 when President William Taft in a speech before Congress proposed an Income Tax and a Constitutional Amendment to give this Tax a solid legal footing. The tax President Taft was proposing was really the continuation of a tax that was already levied on the peoples’ incomes. On February 25, 1913 the Sixteen Amendment to the Federal Constitution of these United States was ratified during the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson. The text reads as follows: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States and without regard to any census or enumeration.” The income tax that followed by the authorization of Congress was a 1% tax on incomes over $3000.00 and a 6% surtax and incomes over $500,000.00. This use of a graduated income tax, that is different rates for different income levels divided people into income level groups as opposed to all being in one common group of income producers. That one fact alone tells us God is not in it. Where was the Church in 1909? You see the mantra to tax the rich has a long history.
Okay, let’s fast forward to today. The following stats are taken from an article published by The Daily Signal titled “The Facts About Who Pays the Most in Taxes in America”. Before I give those numbers let me remind us all that we commonly hear Democrats, Progressives, Socialists, and Communists (each progressively to the left) screaming for the rich to pay their fair share. Let us think about what might be described by reasonable people as just (fair, unbiased, moral, and ethical) and what might God consider just. Now the numbers.
- Top 1%, 892,000 Americans, pay 39% of federal income taxes.
- The top 10% of income earners, 1.7 million persons which is less than 1% of the of the population pay about 70.6% of federal income taxes.
- The bottom 50% of income earners, 78,916,500 persons, pay 2.83% of federal income taxes.
- Some 45.5% of households pay no federal income tax.
According to Labor Statistics about 49% of the population or 157,833,000 persons are employed. Of that number 1.7 million pay 70.6% of all federal income tax. So, let me ask, what would be the fair share for the rich to pay? Would it be fair for perhaps less than one in every hundred people to pay it all? The tax proposal before Congress purports to reduce taxes on the middle class (as yet undefined income numbers) and add to the number of persons paying zero taxes. Would this be just, would it mirror God’s taxation model in the Scripture? Can I give us all the very short answer? NO!!!
God’s taxation system is the tithe which is a tenth (10%) of each persons’ income.
Leviticus 27:30 (KJV)
30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S: it is holy unto the LORD.
If a person made a million dollars they paid one hundred thousand in tithe (tax) and if they made one hundred dollars they paid ten dollars, both paid at the same rate. Is it okay with God for only the people with a certain level to tithe? Are those with lower income levels excused because “they can’t afford to tithe”? Again, NO! The tithe (10% of all income) belongs to God and to not tithe is theft, sin against God.
Malachi 3:8-9 (KJV)
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
The tithe pays for all of the operations of the Kingdom of God in the earth.
Deuteronomy 26:12 (KJV)
12 When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled;
In summary let me ask, are the current tax proposals of God or the devil?
By: Dr. David R. Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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