By Dumbi Johny
It is to be expected that nobody likes to pay tax, we just do it out of obligation, or in situations we cannot avoid.
Nigerians sometimes think excuses are acceptable in place of obeying the law. One such excuse is that governments mismanage public funds, so more should not be handed over to them. Governments, on their part, following years of seemingly inexhaustible access to billions of Dollars from oil and gas paid minimal attention to taxation as a source of funding for public projects.
Governments face a major challenge in tackling dwindling resources from oil and gas. The push to fund public expenditure through taxation, legitimate and desirable as it is, comes at a time of high public discontent with governments and a global recession that hit Nigerians more than the authorities are willing to admit.
Sentiments flowed into the issue with the specific determination of the Lagos State Government to take the tax drive to those who earn incomes from religious activities. The state government has explained that churches and mosques would not pay taxes, but the pastors and imams would pay personal income tax, since they earn incomes.
Even this explanation and the acceptance that these religions recognise taxation as legitimate source of income for governments has not mitigated the concerns that it could be a first step to taxing churches and mosques.
Churches and mosques would be tasked to the hilt in the practice of their beliefs. With these religions subscribing to an all-powerful and all-knowing God, it would be good to see them practice what they preach by obeying the law.
These organisations have become richer than their initial status that made governments for years to ignore them and their workers. They do not have to go through the scandals that some other organisations endure while dodging taxes, including prompt remittances of taxes deducted from their staff.
Exemplary steps by religious organisations in paying taxes would help their members to follow suit. Governments also need to be more transparent with how they spend money from taxation.
Taxes are burdens on those who pay them. However, the burden is lessened when they feel the impact of developments that result from their sacrifices.
For taxation to succeed, both governments and the public have to act godly.
