The executive director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) Prof H Kwasi Prempeh has suggested to African governments to subject churches to the payment of income tax.
His call comes after the number of victims of a suspected starvation cult rose to at least 89 after more bodies were dug up in a Kenyan forest.
Most of the dead were found in shallow single and mass graves, while a few were found emaciated but later died.
There are fears the death toll could rise further as the local Red Cross said more than 200 people had been reported missing.
Sharing his thought on the development on Facebook on Wednesday (26 April), Prempeh called for some form of regulation of churches on the continent.
“You only have to listen to some of the things these sole proprietor preachers propagate and peddle on the airwaves to know that we are long overdue for a reset in State-Church relations. The current situation where there is zero entry barrier to the establishment or operation of a “church” is certainly not sustainable,” he said.
Prempeh added, “Let’s begin by doing away with blanket tax-exemption for churches and, instead, subject churches to income tax (a tax on their net income), granting each church tax credits or exemptions only upon auditable proof that incomes have been used to support missionary or charitable work.”
“The African State can no longer stand aloof. If the State continues to do nothing, the bad apples, who often have the most seductive messages and enticements, will not only outnumber the good, they will contaminate the whole barrel, sending many believers to their doom and making all of society worse off.”
“The same ‘consumer protection’ philosophy that underpins laws and regulations in areas like food and drug safety, securities, etc., could be applied to the regulation of the business of winning “souls,” Prempeh posted on Facebook.
Below is the full post
Clearly, the African state’s longstanding “hands-off-the-Church” approach is proving to be socially disastrous and no longer sustainable. The State is, frankly speaking, abdicating its responsibility to its citizens by leaving them at the mercy of all manner of persons masquerading as men and women of God and preying on the existential, psychological, and spiritual vulnerabilities of the people. The existing State-Church relationship in Africa needs to change to reflect the vastly different and changing nature of the church landscape.
The existing regulation-free relationship was forged during the colonial period when churches and missionaries combined missionary or evangelical work with charitable social work like building and operating schools (to propagate their religious beliefs, of course). Moreover, those early churches were properly organized corporate bodies, with clear structures and hierarchies. It is because they functioned primarily as charities, using their revenue to support their missionary and charitable projects, that those early churches were accorded presumptive tax-exempt status.
These days, things have changed dramatically, making the old State-Church relationship outdated and policies like blanket tax-exemption for churches unjustifiable. We need to move from the no-regulation approach to some middle ground that takes account of new and emerging realities. What’s the point of pretending that all these money-making “sole proprietorships” that have popped up all over the place, their billboards cluttering and blighting our urban spaces, are deserving of the same presumptive tax-exempt treatment traditionally extended to charitable churches.
You only have to listen to some of the things these sole proprietor preachers propagate and peddle on the airwaves to know that we are long overdue for a reset in State-Church relations. The current situation where there is zero entry barrier to the establishment or operation of a “church” is certainly not sustainable. Let’s begin by doing away with blanket tax-exemption for churches and, instead, subject churches to income tax (a tax on their net income), granting each church tax credits or exemptions only upon auditable proof that incomes have been used to support missionary or charitable work.
Then, of course, we must use and enforce zoning and noise abatement ordinances, too, to ensure that “churches” do not locate anywhere or behave anyhow in the communities and neighbourhoods where they are located. One would have expected the “industry” itself to implement and enforce some form of self-regulation or code of conduct among its membership. Unfortunately, with each sole proprietor believing they are God’s chosen one, self-regulation appears unlikely.
The African State can no longer stand aloof. If the State continues to do nothing, the bad apples, who often have the most seductive messages and enticements, will not only outnumber the good, they will contaminate the whole barrel, sending many believers to their doom and making all of society worse off. The same “consumer protection” philosophy that underpins laws and regulations in areas like food and drug safety, securities, etc., could be applied to the regulation of the business of winning “souls”.
Reporting by Fred Dzakpata in Accra
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