Moral Reflections on 21st Century Tax Policy Trends Susan Pace Hamill Tax policy, an important ethical issue that every voting citizen and public office holder must address, boils down to defining the amount of tax revenues needed and deciding how the burden for paying taxes should be allocated among taxpayers enjoying different levels of income…
Framing Tax Enforcement Against the Poor Through Catholic Social Teaching W. Edward Afield What makes for just tax policy? As Professor Hamill observes in her Canopy Forum piece on the estate tax, tax policy “is ultimately a justice-based ethical issue” that naturally connects to the values underlying a citizen’s perception of justice. Law and religion…
Stewardship and the Estate Tax Andrew Hayashi Estate taxes interfere with the transfer of private property at death, raising questions about stewardship, property and power, what we owe our children, and the meaning of bodily death. In this short essay, I consider the wisdom of estate taxes in theological terms. I conclude that an estate…
Religiously Based Ethical Arguments Favoring Estate Taxes Susan Pace Hamill The federal estate tax imposes a tax on the wealth that individuals leave their heirs. This tax only applies to the very richest — well under half a percent — of all persons in the United States. Generous exemptions allow millions to be inherited without…
Tax Changes for Religious Organizations and Clergy in a Biden Presidency? Allen Calhoun Time will tell how much of President-elect Joe Biden’s tax proposal will become law in the next four years. The ease with which the Biden White House can implement its plans depends in part on which political party ends up in control…
Render Unto Caesar: Law, Religion, and Tax Allen Calhoun No area of law is more central to the interplay of religion and law than taxation. In his book The City of God, the theologian and philosopher St. Augustine famously questioned the difference between an empire and a band of robbers. Any faith traditions trying to…