The vast majority of families that we work with lists taxes as one of their top concerns in retirement. Many of them have watched our YouTube videos, listened to our podcast, or read Joe’s book, I Hate Taxes. And they think, “I hate taxes too!”. And so we work with them to develop an ongoing plan which significantly reduces their tax liability through retirement, and everyone is happy. But that is neither here nor there. For those of you familiar with Peak and our core values, you know that we are unapologetically Christian in our approach. That doesn’t mean that we glow and sing kum ba ya while reviewing client tax returns, but it does mean that we value a job well done and that we are not only accountable to our clients, but to our Creator. ‘And so what does this have to do with taxes?’, you might ask. It doesn’t. At least not yet. It has to do with hate. Can a Christian hate taxes?

Maybe the first question to address is, “can a Christian hate anything?” Hate is a strong word, as all of our mothers taught us. And “God is love” (1 John 4:8), the Bible teaches us. So why are we talking about hate? There are contexts where hate is not only allowable but necessary for a Christian. God, for example, “hates…hands that shed innocent blood.” (Proverbs 6:16-17). What would we say of someone who is not repulsed by such evil? Maybe you think that is just an extreme example. But the same passage in Proverbs lists out additional things that God hates – “haughty eyes”, “a lying tongue”, and “one who sows discord among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16-19). In Revelation 2, Jesus praises the church of Ephesus because they, “hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” (Revelation 2:6). It is evident in the gospels that Jesus has a deep hatred for the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. And it wasn’t indifference that led him to flip tables and cleanse the temple. There is a righteous and justified hatred that Christians should have, especially if they are seeking to be like Christ. Part of what it is to have the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) is to love what is good and to hate what is evil.

“Okay, so there are things we should hate, but taxes aren’t going to shed innocent blood.” Aren’t they? It seems at least one organization which specializes in this sort of thing received north of $800 million per its last annual report. But let’s say for the sake of argument that this organization were eliminated, or that government funding of such things were completely cut off. Would this immediately make I Hate Taxes an un-Christian book? After all, the Bible is very clear: “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21), and “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed” (Romans 13:7). Well, if you’ve read the book or heard us at any events, you know that we always preface the conversation by clarifying our love for roads, libraries, and law enforcement. These are good things that government provides via taxes. And when government operates within its God-ordained role and exercises its right to taxes justly, this is a good thing that we should be grateful for. What I want to do below is walk through the types of taxes that are unjust, and therefore should be hated, while exploring the biblical principles that help us to discern between righteous taxes, which we should love, and unrighteous taxes, which we should hate.

The first type of unrighteous tax would be taxes that are used for evil ends. Going back to our example above, God hates hands that shed innocent blood, so many Christians are understandably outraged that their taxes would fund something like abortion. The same could be said of funding for anything that promotes immorality that contradicts Scripture. Taxation is coercive, meaning that it is enforced by the government via threats (i.e. fines and imprisonment) if a citizen does not pay. This is not wrong in itself, since this authority was granted by God, but it becomes especially wicked when this authority is used to force a person to violate his own conscience by forcibly taking his funds and giving them to groups advancing causes that directly contradict that person’s moral and faith convictions.

Unrighteous taxes would also include those which are, simply put, excessive. Government is a gift of God for the people. Romans 13:4 says that “he is God’s servant for your good.” For as much as I champion small and limited government, I hold that, in and of itself, government is good. It is good because of the blessings it provides to its people. Taxes that cause an undue burden on people are symptomatic of a government not functioning as it should. One example of this that we see often is what we refer to as the Widow’s Penalty. Nine times out of ten, when one spouse passes away, the surviving spouse ends up paying a higher total tax bill, even though their income is less than it was before. We have seen far too many people stress over finances, much of this caused by the undue burden of high taxes. To give context to the tax rates we see today, consider Samuel’s warning to the people of Israel when they demanded a king. He warns, “He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves…” (1 Samuel 8:17-18). Samuel describes a tyrannical rule that Israel will later regret. How much tax does this tyrannical king levy? “The tenth” or 10%! To give perspective, a couple living in Ohio and making $100k/yr can expect to pay around $25k in total taxes, or 25%, including federal taxes, state taxes, payroll taxes, property taxes and sales tax. Excessive taxes are harmful to people and harmful for society, given that that is $25k that is no longer being invested in businesses, families or communities.

Thirdly, unrighteous taxes include those that are disproportionate. Proverbs 20:23 says, “Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good.” In our country, one person can work for an hour and know that 7 minutes of their work was for the government. Another person can work for the same hour, and 22 minutes of his work was for the government. The same goes for the Widow’s Penalty that we discussed. A woman can work one day and pay 12 cents on the dollar in taxes. She can go back to the same job after her husband passed away, and now she pays 22 cents on the dollar in taxes. A progressive tax system, like we are under currently, is a partial system that treats groups of people differently based on how much they make. It is discriminatory on its face, and takes on a punitive effect where people are punished for how much they make.

Taxes are often disproportionate, excessive and used for evil ends because so many of these taxes are unauthorized. Like everything, the government has a defined role and operates faithfully when it fulfills the role that God has granted. “There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (Romans 13:1) Romans 13 goes on to clarify that the governing authorities have been given the sword for the purpose of rewarding good and punishing evil. Government exists so that anarchy doesn’t. It exists so that justice can be meted out, and so that people can live in a society that upholds the law. Those are its responsibilities. When any authority begins to go beyond the responsibilities it has been given, things begin to go awry. Can you imagine if the government began to legislate what you could eat and when? Or which books you could read or movies you could watch? Everyone would cry foul, and yet this is exactly what we see when government collects tax revenue to fund social programs that are far beyond the bounds of administering justice. When a government uses its authority to collect taxes for things beyond the scope of its responsibilities, it is the same as a charity collecting donations to fund the expensive art tastes of its executives (assuming that it is not a charity created to build a personal art collection). Likewise, when the government uses taxes as a punitive tool to “level the playing field” they are assuming control and power over an area where they do not have authority. This leads to them taxing things like capital gains – where people are punished for wise stewardship and inheritance taxes – where people are hindered from following the biblical command to leave an inheritance to their children (Proverbs 13:22). When this is done, it is nothing less than theft, because they are seizing resources that they have no right over. And the command “You shall not steal” applies just as much to governments, organizations, and businesses as it does to individuals.

So can a Christian hate taxes? Yes! And a Christian should hate taxes, but we must be clear which kind of taxes we hate so that we do not ourselves overstep Scripture’s teaching. We ought to be grateful for the authorities that God has placed over us while also faithfully calling those same authorities to exercise their rule in a way that is in accord with what God has commanded. And we ought to dutifully pay the taxes we owe, while simultaneously structuring our own finances in a way to pay the least amount of taxes possible. Even moreso when we are paying those taxes to a bloated government that taxes its people excessively and disproportionately in areas that it is not authorized to do so in order to fund organizations and programs that are often immoral. If we are to be faithful stewards with what God has given us, then we must strive to be, “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16) in the realm of taxes and tax planning. We must be submissive and obedient to the authorities, giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and yet organizing our financial affairs in a way that aligns with our convictions, giving to God what is God’s.