Opinion
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| By Bili A. Bakare |
THIS issue of whether or not religious bodies should pay taxes has re-echoed at the on-going National Conference and has even generated divergent views among the populace. Some have opined that since religion has been commercialised in Nigeria, religious bodies should be liable to pay taxes and whilst another school of thought has argued that since they are not operating on profit motive, it would not be the right thing to do.
My observation is that many of the views expressed were too generalised and based on sentiments on both sides of the divide. The purpose of this write-up therefore is to highlight the specifics on taxation and the national obligations of religious bodies in that respect as it is being practised by other civilised climes around the world.
To start with, most of the religious bodies in Nigeria derive their revenue from different sources, namely, tithes/zakats (i.e muslim word for tithes), donations, gifts, landed/house properties, capital investments, rentals, educational institutions such as nursery, primary and secondary schools and universities, just to mention a few. For instance, a religious body has many high rise buildings in Marina, Lagos, while another has an expansive housing estate with thousands of chalets along Lagos–Shagamu express way generating revenue. The question is: Are they not paying taxes or levies such as land use charge, tenement rate, water rate etc to appropriate government agencies on such assets? For those bodies operating private educational institutions are the remuneration of their various staff not liable to pay-as-you-earn, PAYE, tax and do they not pay to the government tax authorities? Are they not liable to pay levies for expansive land being used for educational or religious purposes? In Lagos State, private schools pay annual levies based on certain assessments. Are the schools owned by religious organisations excepted pay? Are the dividends from capital investments not taxed at source? If the answers to the foregoing are “yes,” (i.e they do pay), then we should accept that some religious organisations are already fulfilling their respective tax obligations to our governments, presumably at local, state and federal levels on revenues generated from profit motives. If those opposed to religious bodies being taxed were thinking of tithes/zakats and donations, they are on the right path because these are free money given by members for religious purposes. But the tithes/zakats must be seen as being used for the social/welfare of members and outreach purposes. However, once the latter source of revenue is ploughed into profit-oriented ventures by religious bodies, the returns should be assessed for taxation because it has become shared profits.
As regards the life style of some leaders of religious organisations, this can be curbed through law to make it mandatory for all religious organisations to be registered and to render annual returns covering different sources of their revenue (some already enumerated above), expenditures, assets, cash reserves/surpluses etc. It was through such returns that Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo was caught in London for diverting his Church’s money to his private account. His case was widely reported by the news media. The returns should state the remuneration and allowances the leaders allocated to themselves and the mission’s social/welfare projects which are beneficial to members. The returns will also help to track huge donations from dubious citizens and illegal sources. However, the bottom line of these returns should be to consider the purpose of large surpluses/reserves the organisations have. If the religious bodies have verifiable social/welfare packages for their teeming members, part of such funds should attract some tax reliefs as an encouragement to support the governments on amelioration of poverty in the country.
The supporters of taxation also based their views on the fact that many members of religious bodies could not afford to send their children or wards to educational institutions set up by the missions due to high fees being charged. Taxation should be based on equity and not on any punitive motive. The congregations have duties to liberate themselves either through lobby or pressures on the leaders or founders to ensure that certain percentages of the admissions of students and at a discounted rate are reserved for the less fortunate members to get their children admitted. If I may recall, the early missionaries such as Catholics, Methodists, Anglicans, Baptists, Ahmmaddiyah, Asarrudeen, Zummuratul etc charged very low fees in those old days. The sources of their funds were mainly from the local elite and their overseas head quarters. Many of the new generation of the religious bodies have made the missions to become their family business by registering them in their names or that of their wives and children while many do not bother to register at all. Also their nuclear families are made the sole signatories to the mission bank accounts. Here government should provide the necessary guidelines on the formation, registration and returns in order to protect members from exploitations by their leaders.
Let me point out that religious bodies thrive mostly in a country afflicted with poverty and mass illiteracy because the poor masses are looking for economic survival and consequently resort to the search for spiritual solutions. The religious leaders also feast on wealthy Nigerians due to their imaginary fears of enemies and numerous challenges facing them.
What our various governments should do in conjunction with the private sector is to accelerate economic growth, reduce poverty, eradication of corruption, enlightenment on self empowerment and creation of opportunities for the populace to advance in life. When this is done, the religious houses will soon become scanty as we have seen in the western world. The Yorubas have a proverb that says Iwa Ni Esin which literarily means Good Character depicts Religion. Chikena!!
Bili Bakare is a political and economic analyst based in Lagos. E-mail: bilbak12@yahoo.com | 08033160691.
— Jun. 30, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
Tags: Bili A. Bakare National Conference PAYE religion taxes
