Church In Standoff With PM As Pastors Refuse to Pay Income Tax
Samoa’s Prime Minister has locked horns with the country’s largest church after its pastors agreed to not pay income tax when a new law kicks in next month.
Under the law, which was passed by Parliament last year but doesn’t come into effect until July 1, church ministers and the country’s Head of State will have to pay income tax for the first time.
The Catholic Church and the Methodist Church have said that they accept the law and that their ministers will pay the tax. The Head of State will also pay.
But at a recent general assembly, the leaders of the Congregational Christian Church said they would flout the law, arguing that the payment of income tax goes against their faith.
The Congregational Church is Samoa’s largest, with 29 per cent of Samoans identifying with it, according to the 2016 census, giving it a certain degree of societal heft - although no real legal authority - in a deeply religious country.
But the church’s general secretary, Reverend Vavatau Taufao, said the new law was seen by the assembly as an affront to their beliefs because many pastors lived off donations.
“Our church ministers totally depend on donations from the parishioners,” said Rev Taufao. “So it depends how much they donate. If they donate a dollar, [then] that’s all, that’s it. We believe those donations shouldn’t be taxed.”
RNZ Pacific’s correspondent in Apia, Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia, said while the pastors did indeed live off donations, many ministers lived quite comfortably on much more than the average Samoan. “For example, in another village a church minister every two weeks, they’re earning six thousand tala - round about US$3000 (FJ$6000) a fortnight,” he said. “For one month’s over 10 grand.” Reverend Taufao, though, said that while some pastors did earn decent money from donations, others - particularly in more remote areas - earned little. So therefore, it was unfair that they should be taxed.
Besides, he argued, a donation is what someone was willing to offer as a gift or sentiment to their minister.
“From the heart,” he said, adding that other such donations to other organisations are not taxed in Samoa.
But the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, has not held back in his criticism of the church. In a speech in Parliament, Tuilaepa hit out at some pastors lives of opulence.
He said ministers were driving flashy vehicles on the roads creating traffic jams, but were not willing to contribute to building and fixing the roads on which they drove.
In a later speech, Tuilaepa went further: “This is a very shallow assessment made by just as shallow people,” he said.
“Why? It is because God appoints the country’s leaders to lead a government founded on him.”
As the verbal tit-for-tat unfolded, the church didn’t pull its punches either.