Why churches must not be taxed – Kofi Bentil

A vice president of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has echoed a call by the Vice President and Flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, for churches in the country not to be taxed.

According to Kofi Bentil, a staunch supporter of the presidential bid of Dr. Bawumia, churches play very important roles in the country, including the provision of educational and health facilities, which originally should be the role of the state.

He added that taxing churches would also be "legally and morally" wrong because their revenues are from their members' income, which has already been taxed.

"They provide psychological sustenance to the many economically depressed people. These are very essential things without which our society would be more dysfunctional, despondent, and violent. The weekly services have their spiritual purpose but also have psychotherapeutic effects. They give hope to the hopeless and calm the fears and anxieties of members.

"There are many areas which the state must support citizens but is not able to; churches fill in many of those gaps. Then there are the schools, hospitals, and other services they provide. Note that no church has a legal responsibility to build schools or hospitals; they do so out of a self-imposed moral and spiritual duty," he wrote in a post shared on X on May 10, 2024.

He added, "... we should not pay them, as in give them government money; they are paid by their members, and we can leave it at that. Taxing churches, however, is wrong both legally and morally. Their income is the contribution of members who have already been taxed."

The IMANI vice president, however, pointed out that the salaries of pastors and other workers of churches should be taxed.

"A distinction must be made between church-owned businesses such as sales of anointing oils and books and running of snack shops and other commercial activities. Those are taxable. The salaries of pastors are also taxable, and so it's not entirely true to say churches don't pay taxes. What is exempt, and properly so, are the contributions and tithes of members, which are voluntary non-taxable charitable donations," he added.

Kofi Bentil's explanation comes after Dr. Bawumia stated that he is opposed to churches paying taxes, during an engagement at Techiman in the Bono Region on Friday, May 10, 2024.

According to him, he thinks that the church needs to be supported rather than being taxed.

"The question is, are we going to tax churches? My view on this is simple. In fact, that is why I say that if you assess the work the church has done, we should rather be paying them rather than they paying us.

"Unless you don't understand the work the church has done. If you look at the way they try to keep society together, the universities, the hospitals, the schools, it is just massive. Many churches have hundreds of schools, massive," he said.

The vice president stressed, "So, I don't see, and I will not have a situation where we are taxing churches. We rather want to give churches incentives to support what the government is doing. I want us to be partners in the way the development partners are with us. You are our domestic development partners, and we will give you incentives to do more."

BAI/AE

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