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THERE
IS
A BETTERWAY.
••
by
Clayton Steep
What you may not know about taxes.
S
o out of an eight-hour
work day you labor t he
first two, three or even
four hours just to pay direct
taxes. To say nothing of the
indirect taxes and fees you
pay- but which are hidden
in the prices of what you pur–
chase.
How
did all this get started
anyway?
How lt Began
The principie of taxation has been
used to one degree or another by
various human governments since
ancient times. In Bible history it
began with King Saul.
Sometimes taxes took the form
of rentlike dues on land. Or per–
haps a duty levied on commerce.
Or it might have been a head tax,
such as one decreed by Caesar
Augustus, recorded in Luke 2:1-3.
But governments long ago gen–
erally did not rely on a wide range
of taxes for the bulk of their rev–
en ue.
It
is only in the last three or
four hundred years, with the rapid
growth of industry and trade, that
so great a diversity of taxes begin
to constitute an increasingly
important part of national reve–
nues. It was then that centralized
governments in Europe replaced
the feudal system. Simple land
dues were expanded into property
taxes. These eventually included
taxes on houses, personal property
and finally the income tax- the
earning potential of one's profes–
sion .
January
1982
lmportjexport duties and excise
taxes became more numerous as
world trade flourished. T he. ex–
panding complexity of commerce
and business provides an ever
unfolding array of new facets of
wealth, income and inheritance
which can be taxed. Needless to
say, the temptation to tax was not
resisted by most tax planners and
legislators.
\
Now governments in the indus–
trial world depend so heavily on
these diverse taxes that they cannot
reduce them without major eco–
nomic dislocation.
Certainly government needs
sorne kind of income to enable it to
provide essential services to its citi–
zens, to oversee an orderly func–
tioning of the nation and to pay
needed government employees. But
the humanly devised systems of
taxation many nations are saddled
with today are complicated, bur–
densome and, by common admis–
sion, have gotten out of control.
lt
seems few people realize there is a
better way!
A Better Plan
T here is indeed an alternative to
problem-riddled methods of ta.x:a–
tion.
lt
was alluded to recently by
President Reagan in a news story,
which did not make major head–
lines, though it should have. The
occasion was a meeting in the
Oval Offic.e between the President
and a visiting prominent theolo–
gian. Because Mr. Reagan's tax
cut proposals were an ítem of
great interest, one of the reporters
present brought the subject up.
He asked the theologian if God
had an opinion on the President's
tax cutting proposals. Replied the
theologian: ''1'11 leave that up to
the experts." The experts? You
would think that if anyone is an
"expert" about God's views on
important · matters, an eminent
and learned theologian ought to be
one.
Be that as it may, at this point
President Reagan showed himself
to be somewhat more of an expert
as to what God thinks about the
subject of taxes than his guest
appeared to be. He volunteered:
" The Lord- really, we could copy
Him a little bit. The Lord had a
pretty simple tax plan- tithing–
that His share is a tenth." To this
he added: "When we start com–
puting Caesar's share it gets a lit–
tle bit out of line."
Does it ever! We've al ready com–
mented on just how much out of
line Caesar 's- that is to say
human
government 's- tax demands often
become. But what was President
Reagan talking about, God's ."sim–
ple tax plan- tithing"?
What is "tithing"? The word
tithe
is an old English word found
in many English translations of the
Bible. l t merely means "tenth."
God's plan - it really isn 't a
"tax"- it's actually a prior claim–
is to require payment to Him of a
tithe. Or, as Mr, Reagan said, "His
share is a tenth."
His share of what?
God, of course, already owns all
things. "The earth is the Lord's and
the fulness thereof [yes, everything
on it and in it]; the world, and .they
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