I once worked in a church organization as a staff member, and I learnt that taxes were deducted, although in small percentages, from our salaries. This was also applicable to many branches of the church. So, yeah, churches that do not rely solely on tithes and offerings pay taxes, while those that mainly depend on offerings and tithes, such as churches without sales points of any kind, those that do not own schools, or those without other establishments, do not pay taxes. Most of the time, churches in this category, I mean those that do not pay taxes, are the ones that are not registered with the government.
Honestly, I didn't have any issues with this arrangement when I learnt about it, but now, there's a big issue, and that's basically the fact that all churches should pay taxes, whether they are big or small.
Why?
Back in the days, when I was living in the village with my parents, we had a church at the back of our window. The church wasn't registered; it was a sole proprietorship church, and the clergyman used to raise an unbelievable amount of money every Sunday.
Hold on!
We would finish our service at our church and meet their church service just starting. We could hear everything they did in the church, and every Sunday, this clergyman made sure to call for donations to cater for the pastor's needs for the week. People usually gave out N100,000, N200,000, N300,000, and even more. In those days, these amounts were very high in value. This man was practically milking the members, but the members weren't complaining either because the clergyman was into "prophetic ministry," and they were feeling the "doings."
Apart from this, churches these days are basically business-oriented. As a matter of fact, no church in this modern era, at least in Nigeria, is established solely for the purpose of worship without any business interests. Yeah, I said what I said, and I didn't mince my words. Most of the time, people argue that churches are not just about money but are also established for the very purpose for which a church is meant to exist. Well, no matter how people argue about it, churches in Nigeria have become business centres. Period!
Do you know that even the big churches, I mean those that ought not to be "extorting" money from their members because the organizations are already big enough to cater for themselves, are still pressuring their members to give more? Why shouldn't these churches pay taxes? Imagine a popular clergyman in Nigeria who boldly came out and instructed his members not to buy Christmas clothes if they hadn't paid their tithes because doing so was wrong. Come on! Naaaaah! The government should tax churches. Period!
They're milking too much money from their members, and these amounts of money need to flow back into the economy through taxes.
Thanks for reading.
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