THROUGH UNTRUE

The gospel reading today centers around the concept of paying taxes (Matthew 22:15-21). Jesus says that paying taxes is a legal duty. However, He adds, “Give to God what belongs to God,” thereby implying the possibility of conscientious objection against paying taxes to a corrupt government. Jesus recognizes that many of us, much like the Jews of his time, are afflicted with tax aversion.

In our country, while tax evasion is widespread among businesses and corporations, tax aversion is pervasive among individual income taxpayers. According to a study conducted by the National Tax Research Council (NTRC), salaried earners, despite constituting only 60 percent of the country's total income, contribute 80 percent of the government’s tax revenue. 
Tax aversion is aggravated by the perception of budgetary diversions, wasteful government spending, confidential allocations benefiting some officials, and the suspicion that corporations exploit tax loopholes to evade paying the correct amount of taxes.

Historically, people expressed their tax aversion through methods like street marches and other popular forms of protest. But these mass actions appear to have lost their effectiveness. For instance, despite attempts to eliminate the pork barrel, this convoluted system almost synonymous with greed persists. Perhaps a more drastic way of eradicating the pork barrel is to deprive the government of the funds needed to sustain it.

Henry David Thoreau once urged people not to pay taxes if they knew these funds would not be used for essential public services and utilities. He argued that citizens pay taxes to support the government’s duty of providing essential services. This includes national defense, law enforcement, education, poverty alleviation, scientific and technological progress, the preservation of freedom, healthcare, and more. In his view, paying taxes to an incompetent government that fails to deliver these services makes one complicit in its failures.

Thoreau faced criticism for not being a patriot or nationalist. But he maintained that a nation is not defined by its government. A nation consists of its people living together in a country, sharing common needs and interests, while a government serves as an organization responsible for ensuring that the nation's interests are met.

Some years ago, a Filipina environmentalist refused to pay taxes in protest against the government’s inaction regarding the degradation of her town’s natural resources and its lack of concern for their well-being.

She wrote, “I hope my refusal to pay taxes will compel the government to take notice. The slow justice system and the government's inability to protect citizens from sickness and poverty are graver crimes than not paying taxes.”

When informed that she might face imprisonment for her activism, she replied, “I would rather be in prison than to continually find myself and my family on rooftops during typhoons or seeking shelter in poorly constructed evacuation centers. I no longer want to waste valuable time in traffic jams caused by our antiquated transport system, wade through dirty water during flash floods, and be vulnerable to muggings and kidnappings due to inadequate government protection for citizens’ safety.”

Refusing to pay taxes may be a potent form of civil disobedience, albeit an admittedly radical and subversive one. Perhaps patience is a better alternative, allowing time for change. However, as Yevgeny Yevtushenko once wrote: 

“There is patience that deserves respect, like a woman’s patience during childbirth. But there is also a useless, demeaning, and servile patience. It's time to discard this and refuse to tolerate a government that betrays our trust. If we continue to endure it, then we become its accomplices. We get the government we deserve.”