GVING TO CAESAR WHAT...!( AUGUST 1, 2009)

SINCE Biblical times, tax collectors have been the most despised persons in society.
On one occasion, in those days, when Jesus Christ had dinner with tax collectors and many others, he was accused by the Pharisees of eating with tax collectors because they were perceived to have a very bad public image.
Again, on another occasion when the Pharisees wanted to find out Jesus’ opinion regarding the payment of taxes to Caesar (the government), Jesus, recognising the importance of the payment of taxes to the state, told them that it was important for a citizen to discharge his obligation to the state in terms of the payment of taxes, without ignoring paying homage and respect to God.
That was when Jesus charged the Pharisees in Matthew 22:21 to “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” (NIV)
We have traced the payment of taxes to Biblical times just to establish the hurdles that have stood in the way of tax collectors in mobilising revenue from time immemorial.
If the payment of taxes was recognised as a key ingredient in civic responsibility more than 2,000 years ago, then its relevance today cannot be lost on all patriotic citizens of the country.
No country, no matter how well-endowed, can do without taxes. Governments all over the world do not exercise their mandates with their own resources but with the taxpayer’s money.
It is a sad commentary, though, that under normal circumstances, taxpayers are expected to voluntarily declare their incomes for tax collectors to assess the appropriate taxes to pay to the state, but that has not been done over the years.
The IRS is always confronted with a Herculean task when collecting taxes for the state because apart from those on the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) list who are mostly workers, the rest of income earners do not care to voluntarily pay their taxes.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is aware of the fact that in a dual economy like ours where majority of income earners are in the informal sector, as against the formal sector, the collection of taxes is always a challenging endeavour.
Although the inauguration of the Rent Task Team by the IRS is late in the day, the move can best be described as better late than never because house owners who have not been paying taxes will now be compelled to do so.
Rent tax is an unexplored area by the IRS but if it is properly harnessed, it can go a long way to support the government’s development efforts.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that the task ahead is not going to be easy, especially when the law the IRS wants to enforce now has been on our statute books since 1973, but since “the team have been selected carefully because of their proven competence and attention to detail”, they will live up to expectation.
We are not cynical about the competence of the team but the DAILY GRAPHIC is sceptical for the simple reason that initiatives similar to what the IRS is embarking on failed in the past because those in charge placed personal gain above the public good.
We appeal to the team to consider the plight of ordinary Ghanaians when it is discharging its duties to the state so that the country can mobilise more revenue from internal sources to undertake development projects.