Church calls for reform of tax and spend regime

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has issued reflections on the problem of taxation.

“Render unto Caesar” features 12 chapters covering different points of taxation from a Catholic perspective, written by a wide range of economists and academics. The aim of the document is to “inform government policy”.

Among the problems tackled within the report are taxation for the needs of welfare, family taxation and government debt.

The document takes issue with Britain’s current “individualised” type of taxation, saying this this puts single-earner families “at a big drawback”.

Under the present system a pair through which each spouses earn £12,500 per yr can be exempt from income tax, nonetheless if one spouse earned £25,000 and the opposite stayed home, they might need to pay tax.

The report said of this, “A family’s tax position shouldn’t rely on who inside a family does paid work but on the resources the family has at its disposal.”

Instead, taxation needs to be based on a family’s variety of dependents and talent to pay, the report argues.

In a separate chapter about government borrowing and debt, the report describes this as one generation attempting to complement itself on the expense of the following.

“Taxation in a democracy involves the consent of the electorate. Those future residents who bear the burden of presidency debt cannot consent,” it says. 

Bishop Richard Moth, Chair of the Department for Social Justice said, “Sometimes, people ask why the Church should comment on political and economic matters. However, it can be crucial that public policy in all areas of social life is informed by moral principles.” 

He added, “It is for that reason that we’ve commissioned a lot of experts to supply their evaluation of this complex query.

“We offer this document as a contribution to the strategy of deliberation that should happen amongst all people of goodwill.”