Here’s an interesting discussion of what Scripture teaches about taxation.

Bojidar Marinov says,

“What’s the biblical principle behind ‘no taxation without representation’?”

It’s a very good question. It’s yuge. It’s an enormous question. I am not kiddin’.

So I did a quick study on the issue. Just quick (queek, as they say it in the South), not comprehensive, just to see what the Bible says and doesn’t say, without making any systematic ideology out of it. And here’s what I think I discovered:

There is no such Biblical principle. The only Biblical principle as to who gets taxed and who doesn’t is found in Matt. 17:25. It specifically says that the sons of the rulers (the homeborn, the citizens) are not taxed, while only the strangers are taxed. The words used for “taxes” there are “telos” and “kensos” (that is, “census”) and both signify taxes that are TAKEN from the population, the first as a rent for living on government land, the second as “tribute” of conquered people to their conquerors. (To compare, the taxes in Rom. 13 are “phoros,” that is, a “bringing,” something that can be understood to be a voluntary offering, not our modern compulsory taxation.) Thus, taxes in our modern sense – as a compulsory payment – only apply to strangers. The “sons” (homeborn and citizens) should pay no taxes.

This corresponds to other references in the NT and from history. Rome taxed the conquered peoples but not its own citizens. (Wealthy Romans were expected to contribute voluntarily.) That’s why the commander in Acts 22:28 paid a large sum for his citizenship: it freed him of taxes, in addition to allowing him to serve in the military and be armed at all times. The tax code changed much later, and then all citizens were made subject to taxation, and with it, all the conquered people were granted Roman citizenship.

The US had such system until 1913. It was foreigners who were taxed for the privilege to immigrate. The federal budget was sometimes almost entirely financed by this immigration poll-tax, to the point that the US entered WWI with a gigantic budget surplus, all financed by immigrants.

Such a system, however, is entirely opposite to what we have today, both as policies and as ideology. In the first place, if rulers are only supported by taxes from immigrants, they need to make sure that the nation is an attractive place for foreigners. (Rome did it by conquering nations but that can’t continue for long, not in our time, at least.) This means righteousness and justice. It also means open borders for both people and merchandise; for a ruler who closes his borders will either be left without revenue, or will have to tax his own citizens which will mean effectively turning his own citizens into foreigners. (As is the US today.) It also means a government that depends heavily on its own citizens to understand the concept of hospitality, thus, expanding the rule of righteousness across the land. In the final account, a nation that only taxes foreigners will have a government that is forced by the very nature of its taxation sources to stay limited and just, and encourage voluntarism, hospitality, and general righteousness in its population.

So, the answer to the question is:

There is no Biblical principle to support “no taxation without representation.” The Biblical principle is: “No compulsory taxation for citizens.”