Which state comes closest to having a tax code derived from Biblical principles?
It's Minnesota, according to this Christmas day article in the New York TImes, which cites an Alabama law professor and expert on tax avoidance for small businesses. Professor Susan Pace Hamill also holds a degree in divinity from a conservative evangelical seminary.
Her study of the religious and moral basis of tax policy ranks Alabama worst among the states. Now, other scholars are starting to address the topic, according to the Times.
“The Bible commands that the law promote justice because human beings are not good enough to promote justice individually on their own,” [Hamill] said. “To assume that voluntary charity will raise enough revenues to meet this standard is to deny the sin of greed.”
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Professor Hamill, by her reading of the New Testament, concludes that at least a mildly progressive tax system is required so that the rich make some sacrifice for the poor. She cites the statement by Jesus that “unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required, and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”
Some of her critics, however, say that the tithes described in the Old Testament show that a flat tax, in which everyone pays the same share of their income to government, should be seen as the biblical standard.
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Professor Hamill said her research found that just one state, Minnesota, came within reach of the principles she identified, because its tax system is only slightly regressive and it spends heavily on helping the poor, especially through public education.
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