A former General Secretary of the Christian Council, Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni Frimpong, has asked the public to advance arguments for the taxing of the donations given to political parties before they push for taxes on the offerings received by churches.
According to him, churches already pay taxes on their commercial activities, and that their offerings are voluntary contributions that are not taxable by law.
Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Adom FM, Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni Frimpong, noted that people who keep saying that churches should pay taxes are not aware of the fact that churches are not engaging in commercial activities.
He said that if the government and the public want to tax voluntary contributions, they should start with the political parties, who receive huge donations from their supporters and members.
“I am a Presbyterian pastor, at the end of the month, my employer deducts my taxes from the source. By this, before I get my salary, I see all the deductions by way of taxes. Churches with other forms of businesses such as conference centres, guest houses etc, they pay their taxes accurately.
“When people keep saying that churches should pay taxes, we must bear in mind that it is not as though churches engage in commercial activities but those that have some components of commercial businesses, pay their taxes. So, churches pay taxes already,” he said.
He continued: “But I believe that people keep making these arguments because of the offerings we take. Consider this, as a country we do not tax any voluntary contribution. Before you ask churches to pay taxes, any time NPP and NDC meet in their respective party meetings, they should pay taxes on their contributions.”
Rev. Dr Opuni Frimpong added that voluntary contributions are not limited to churches, but also include other groups and bodies, such as old student associations, funeral contributions, among others.
He said that it is unfair to single out churches for taxation, while leaving out other voluntary contributors.
“Currently, Ghana’s laws do not allow for voluntary contributions to be taxed and as a matter of fact, everybody is allowed to take these forms of contributions from people. So, why don’t people ask for contributions from the political parties, old student associations, and funeral contributions to be taxed. Yet they are telling churches to pay taxes,” he noted.
The former general secretary stated that if the government and the public insist on taxing voluntary contributions, they should apply it to all groups and bodies, not just churches.
To him, the government and the public should not engage the church about taxes, unless they have started the conversation from that angle.
“If that is the argument, then all forms of voluntary contributions must be taxed. If that argument is made, then we should remember that you are not only talking about the churches, rather, it covers all groups and bodies. If you’ve not started the conversation from that angle, do not engage the church about taxes,” he stated.
