The Libertarian Creed, “Taxation is Theft,” is emblazoned on countless t-shirts, bumper stickers, and memes. It might feel hard to disagree as you file your taxes. While many of us await our “refund” from the IRS, many self-employed people and small business owners are looking at a bill and figuring out how they will pay it. Add this to the sales tax paid at every trip to the grocery store (in most states, at least), gasoline taxes built into the price at the pump, and the property taxes you pay bit by bit in your monthly mortgage, and you realize that there are taxes everywhere! Maybe the Libertarians have a point . . .
While these payments to the various levels of government are unpleasant, we know deep down that taxes are important. Your city, county, state, and federal government perform important functions in society, from removing trash to protecting our nation from our enemies. Taxes are a pain, but a necessary one.
The Church in many ways affirms this commonsense instinct. The Catechism in paragraph 2240 lists paying taxes as a civic duty that the citizen owes to one’s country, alongside voting prudently and being willing to fight to defend his nation if needed.
St. Paul in Romans 13:7 tells us to “pay to all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.” Our Lord himself commands, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” It looks as though paying taxes is less of a “necessary evil,” and more like an act of virtue sanctioned by God that keeps civil society afloat!
I remember my first paycheck. There the stub showed the full amount I had earned, then dollar amounts for what was withheld for Social Security, Medicare, local taxes, etc. I actually felt proud. I had worked hard, and part of my labor was going to support my community and my country.
Fifteen years and five kids later, I get other feelings when looking at those withheld amounts, and they sure aren’t warm and fuzzy. Do the Libertarians and I just need to get over ourselves?
It turns out that the Church does have a lot more to say about taxation. Among the sins against the Seventh Commandment, the Catechism lists “tax evasion” but also “excessive expenses and waste.” You and I must not cheat the system, but likewise, public authorities are morally accountable for how tax money is spent. They are guilty of a kind of theft if they allow “public funds” to be squandered on ineffectual programs or siphoned away through fraud.
Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum takes this a step further, reaffirming the right of the state to levy taxes, but warning that not all taxes are inherently just. He says that social cohesion, economic productivity, and the ability for families to stay in their homeland and not be forced to migrate are possible only when “a man’s means be not drained and exhausted by excessive taxation.” He goes on:
The right to possess private property is derived from nature, not from man; and the State has the right to control its use in the interests of the public good alone, but by no means to absorb it altogether. The State would therefore be unjust and cruel if under the name of taxation it were to deprive the private owner of more than is fair.
One century later, John Paul II cautioned against the “Social Assistance State” or “Welfare State” that crowds out other crucial institutions, such as businesses, non-profits, and ministries. This bloating of the government invariably creates a “need” for more tax revenue, leading to “a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending.”
The Catechism defines theft as “the usurpation of another’s goods against the reasonable will of the owner.” Do taxes meet this definition? Direct embezzlement and fraud obviously qualify. But waste from bloated or mismanaged government programs, or initiatives that do not effectively address the problems they were intended to solve, can also turn taxation into theft. If those in government are good stewards and take reasonable sums, they are fulfilling their vocation. But they steal if they squander the funds they have taken from individuals and families through laziness, corruption, vanity projects, or increasing the “need” for more and more tax revenue by expanding the scope of the State beyond its proper limits. If they increase the tax burden to amounts that unreasonably reduce the ability of families to cover their needs and save for the future, they are, in a true sense, thieves, and should repent and make restitution.
Just as God-given parental authority over one’s children does not mean that every act of discipline or command is fair, so, too, the State’s recognized right to tax in order that those in government may fulfill their duties does not mean that every act of taxation is just. The government is made up of people just like you and me. Laziness, stupidity, greed, and hubris do not magically disappear from someone’s fallen nature just because his email ends in “.gov.” People are not infallible when setting tax rates or managing “public money.” Good intentions behind government actions do not always translate to good results, and that must be brought into account when weighing whether something is a good use of taxpayer dollars.
So the Libertarians have a point: taxation can be theft. Fortunately, we do have ways to take action if we are convicted that we are being overtaxed or that our officials are squandering the money we gave them. Karl Keating put it thus:
I’d like to pay less in taxes, and I very much would like to see less and more prudent spending, at all levels of government. I pay attention to where the money goes, and, when appropriate, I make my preferences and annoyances known to those in authority.
Call your congressional representative and senators, research whom you vote for, and talk about taxes with your friends and family. But most importantly, we should follow Paul’s request:
I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.