Churches and taxes; their time has come

The world changed from one moment to the next because of Covid-19. Everyone's plans changed; those of individuals, families, companies, and the State. Colombia is entering a critical stage as it is paralyzed, its inhabitants are under compulsory quarantine in their homes, the industry has slowed down (except for necessities) and the State urgently needs -among others- resources to acquire new medical equipment (ventilators, respirators, masks, masks, face masks, protection kits for doctors) to overcome the hospital overflow that is coming.

According to information received, Colombia has around 600 or 700 ventilators, while the United States has 160,000 (and will need 800,000 more). In Colombia (according to Rafael Nieto in “El Colombiano”) there are 15 hospital beds and twenty doctors for every 10,000 inhabitants, and now they must start adapting field hospitals and hotels for medical attention, so they urgently need resources for this.

These resources cannot come from new taxes on private enterprise, which is clearly at risk of extinction. Nor can they come from new taxes on people or individuals, as they are counting their pesos to be able to eat and survive during these coming months.

So it is time to look at other institutions that can contribute and provide fresh resources for health and that are different from individuals and companies, and for such an example, in a secular country, no one better than churches.

Since the issuance of Law 20 of 1974, which approved the Concordat of the Colombian State with the Vatican, the Catholic Church has been considered as a non-taxpayer, both in income and other taxes. This tax condition has been extended to the rest of the Churches and religious denominations by the Constitutional Court, through several rulings. According to “Semana” Magazine, as of 2015, in Colombia there were 5,209 churches whose assets, in 2013, were close to $9.7 billion with income close to $4 billion. Today, by 2020, these figures must have doubled. In Medellin alone, for example (according to “Bluradio”), "1.4 billion is collected from properties that pay property tax, meanwhile, there are 397 properties that do not pay the tax because they are churches or seminaries".

Nobody denies that many churches are rendering their services and good offices in the present calamity situation, but there has also been circulating in social networks requests from pastors asking not to stop tithes to be protected against the Covid-19, which is shameful. Apart from all this, it is necessary that the Churches contribute to the State by paying a tax on their income (or revenues), on their patrimony, on their assets abroad and by paying the property tax on their properties to be able to use such resources to provide the Colombian hospital network.

This can be done, according to Article 215 of the Political Constitution, through the issuance of a decree with the force of law that creates this tax aimed exclusively at averting the crisis. The fact that the Concordat is in force is not an obstacle for this since such treaty does not deal with human rights and therefore is not part of the constitutional block.