As a newbie to this forum, I will keep it simple....
Is your tax refund a pile of money that you did not have in your hands before the refund was given? If your answer is yes then give a portion to God...Call it whatever you want to, a tithe or an offering, but it is a good gift from God, offer it back to Him.
This is only true if you get Earned Income Credit. My guess is that that is what you had when you got your $5000 return. The deductions we take only lower our tax liability. When I was a teenager and my parents were claiming me, I was "exempt" and I got back everything I had paid in, but never anything more. It is impossible to get back more than you paid in without EIC. I shgould reiterate, however, that I do believe it is a great thing to do to give from your tax return, and God will surely bless anyone who does it. But it's an offering. And by the way, Bob, we are in agreement that if you do get back more than you paid in, it is indeed income and you should therefore pay a tithe on it.
What I am referring to is this. You take a person who pays $750 Federal taxes for the year. They then claim deductions and their refund is for $3600. They paid no where near the $3600 but because of child deductions, etc. they get more money back. Therefore in my mind the $2850 difference would be additional income they received. I can remember one year when I paid in $1600 dollars in Federal taxes but we received over $5000 in refund. If there were no deductions to come into play then that principal might come into play but with all the deductions lower income people and non business owner people get, the return is usually higher than the payin. That is my expoerience anyway with working with the tax people.
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A preacher in those days, when he felt God called him to preach, didn't hunt up a college or seminary, he hunted up a good horse, took off across the country and began crying "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world"!
Bob, if you did tax returns for so long, I don't know how we can disagree. Enter in line A how much you paid in. Enter in line B how much you owe in taxes. Subtract line B from line A... this is your refund. If you claimed 10 dependants on your W4 and paid nothing in all year and then on your return claimed 1 dependant, you would owe the IRS.
I appreciate all the answers. I do humbly disagree with Saint though on this item. "They are a REFUND of overpayment to the IRS". I have yet to know anyone who pays enough tax through their payrol deductions to get an actual refund. The way I know it to be is that all of us have deductions from our income but it does not cover what the government says we should owe. We then take deductions from various other items such as marriage deduction, child credits, medical bills, home ownership, etc., which then gives us enough to finally get a refund. That is why I feel that the income tax check is actually income because most people get back more than they actually pay in. For a number of years I did income tax returns for a friends company and after thousands of income tax returns I saw a pattern that I previously was not aware of.
-- Edited by bobw at 09:36, 2008-01-25
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A preacher in those days, when he felt God called him to preach, didn't hunt up a college or seminary, he hunted up a good horse, took off across the country and began crying "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world"!
When we still believed tithing was a law for Christians, hubby and I tithed our income and THEN "gifted" our current pastor with the Income Tax tithe ... requiring only that he/she use the money for something they had been wanting but unable to afford. We've seen this gift go for everything from a day at the beach to a new cowboy hat and even a new suit. Now, as with all our money, we give it as God directs.
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"I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to His holy people." Jude 3 Joyce
In most cases, tax returns are not income. They are a REFUND of overpayment to the IRS. It's like putting money in the bank, not earning any interest, and withdrawling it. This is, of course, assuming that you paid your tithe on the FIRST 10% (meaning that you gave 10% of your gross income before taxes were taken out.) In the case of Earned Income Credit, it is different. That is income, not a refund from overpayment. If anyone wants to give a portion of their tax return, that's great. However, it is an offering, not a tithe.
I am wondering what everyone things about this subject. I personally believe we should tithe on all of our income whether it be regular payroll checks, money won in prizes, gambling (which I believe no Christian should do), tax returns, or whatever.
-- Edited by bobw at 12:47, 2008-01-24
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A preacher in those days, when he felt God called him to preach, didn't hunt up a college or seminary, he hunted up a good horse, took off across the country and began crying "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world"!
