TAX AND THE CLERGY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 60, 8 September 1931, Page 10

TAX AND THE CLERGY

THE LEVY ON STIPENDS

"The unemployment tax payable on all incomes is, of course, applicable to the stipends of the clergy, and legal opinion states that the Diocesan office must deduct the amount from the monthly cheque," says the "Church News." "All stipends in this diocesa are paid from the diocesan, office, the parishes providing'one part of the stipend, the diocese the balance, by grants from the General Trust Estate subsidy, with additions in the cass of parochial districts from the Home Mission Fund. "The clergy are, of course, liable to the tax because it is fixed regular income. It may be useful to point out that at least in theory and principle the stipend is not a wage. The parish priest, is not paid so much a month for bo much work clone. In theory ho gives his work and the diocese and the parishioners together contribute towards his maintenance. The principle is illustrated more clearly by what we understand is the practice of the Eoman Catholic Church, the parist priest receiving no fixed income, but depending on the gifts of the laity. "Most Communions have adopted the fixed stipend for the mutual convenience of minister and congregation; owing to the varying needs of a married ministry, the system of non-fixed stipends has not been found to work satisfactorily. The principle, however, remains, though obscured by the fixation of stipend that the stipend is not wages, but maintenance to enable the clergyman to devote his whole time to the ministration of the Word and the Sacraments. The clergy, of course, would not wish to be exempted from an emergency tax which affects every wage earner, but they themselves are not technically wage earners, but are maintained by the alms of the people."