Post by robertcolumbia on May 20, 2013 11:22:52 GMT -5
In recent months I have become interested in paying a "full" 10% tithe to my church. The idea seems pretty simple at first and I started off paying approximately 10% of my pay for the month rounded to a nearby round value, but soon got mired in legalism surrounding how to handle non-work income and the fundamental definition of income.
Questions I have considered:Do you tithe on an income tax refund? If you are paying tithing on gross income before taxes the answer would seem to be no because the refund represents income you tithed on the past year but never had in hand until now. If the property tax man comes by and tells you that your house is worth twice what you paid for it, do you tithe on that increase or would you hold off until and unless you actually sell it for profit? Does the tax man have the right to tell you how much your house is worth in God's eyes? Maybe the tax man says it's worth $150,000 but God disagrees. If you are trading stocks and you sell one for a profit and one for a loss and end up with a small net profit before taxes, do you tithe 10% of your final profit or 10% of your total gain? Are there other cases where you can offset a gain against a loss and come to the conclusion that even though stuff changed hands you didn't actually come out ahead and therefore don't "owe" anything? If not, do Christians who own stores that have a 5% markup on items need to pay 10% of gross revenue and go bankrupt because 95% of that "income" was already used to buy the product to sell? What about workers? Can they deduct the cost of commuting (gas, bus tickets, etc), schooling (you had to take that class to get that job) from their pay to figure out how much further ahead they REALLY are in life? Is it even right in a basic sense to use Caesar's tax rules (what is and what is not income, what is deductible, what stuff is worth, etc.) to calculate our income before God?
Whew, that's a lot. Is formal tithing a hopelessly legalistic concept?
I noticed that when I started doing this, I started to think about "How much do I owe this week" rather than "What can I do this week for the kingdom of God". That's not very good - see 1 Cor 13.
Questions I have considered:Do you tithe on an income tax refund? If you are paying tithing on gross income before taxes the answer would seem to be no because the refund represents income you tithed on the past year but never had in hand until now. If the property tax man comes by and tells you that your house is worth twice what you paid for it, do you tithe on that increase or would you hold off until and unless you actually sell it for profit? Does the tax man have the right to tell you how much your house is worth in God's eyes? Maybe the tax man says it's worth $150,000 but God disagrees. If you are trading stocks and you sell one for a profit and one for a loss and end up with a small net profit before taxes, do you tithe 10% of your final profit or 10% of your total gain? Are there other cases where you can offset a gain against a loss and come to the conclusion that even though stuff changed hands you didn't actually come out ahead and therefore don't "owe" anything? If not, do Christians who own stores that have a 5% markup on items need to pay 10% of gross revenue and go bankrupt because 95% of that "income" was already used to buy the product to sell? What about workers? Can they deduct the cost of commuting (gas, bus tickets, etc), schooling (you had to take that class to get that job) from their pay to figure out how much further ahead they REALLY are in life? Is it even right in a basic sense to use Caesar's tax rules (what is and what is not income, what is deductible, what stuff is worth, etc.) to calculate our income before God?
Whew, that's a lot. Is formal tithing a hopelessly legalistic concept?
I noticed that when I started doing this, I started to think about "How much do I owe this week" rather than "What can I do this week for the kingdom of God". That's not very good - see 1 Cor 13.
