The government included plans to tax the incomes of members of the clergy in a package of proposals to revise tax codes, which are mainly aimed at boosting the economy stuck in a low-growth trap and export slump.
It is the latest move of the government to levy income tax on the clergy, discussions of which began in 1968. The latest plan calls for revising the income tax law to count the earnings of ministers, priests and monks as taxable income.
The issue of taxing clergy incomes has caught the attention of government officials and politicians intermittently, but it faced strong resistance from religious communities each time.
Most recently, the government pushed to tax the incomes of the clergy in 2013, but the proposal failed to go through the parliament, mainly due to the reluctance of lawmakers who worried about backlashes from religious groups.
So the government last year took a roundabout path of revising an ordinance to the income tax law -- a change that does not require parliamentary approval -- to pave the way for taxing the clergy. But even the proposal, which otherwise would have taken effect in January this year, encountered opposition from some officials, like Finance Minster Choi Kyung-hwan, who also is a member of the National Assembly.
Things like this make us skeptical about the government’s plan to revise the income tax law, for which bipartisan agreement by the rival parties is essential. That even the ruling party’s chief policymaker, Rep. Kim Jung-hoon, and some other members called for a “cautious approach” deepens the skepticism.
To be fair, there already have been enough arguments -- well-grounded and legitimate -- for getting rid of the undue tax exemption given to members of the clergy.
For starters, there should be no exception in the principle of universal taxation -- where there is income, there should be tax. Korea is the only member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that exempts the clergy from tax. Moreover, taxation of the clergy would enhance financial transparency of the nation’s religious organizations, which are sometimes implicated in corruption.
Catholic priests have been paying income taxes voluntarily since 1994, and the clergy of the Anglican Church followed suit in 2002. Clergy members of some Protestant churches and Buddhist orders are doing the same. It is ridiculous that we collect due taxes from some, but not from others doing the same job.
Ruling party leader Kim Moo-sung said that his party should run the risk of losing votes in elections for pushing for labor reforms. The same commitment is required of Kim and other politicians to close one of the long-held loopholes in our taxation policy.
