THE JERUSALEM INSTITUTE OF JEWISH LAW
Rabbi Emanuel Quint, Dean

Lesson # 367 - Taxing Members of the community (part 2)
Who may be taxed?
We continue with the topic of taxing members of the community. We have discussed in the prior lesson external taxes, internal matters for which taxes may be levied, and who may vote in the election of the council that will levy the taxes.

Very few people are fond of paying taxes. We shall now discuss who may be taxed in this halachic community.

As was stated in the last lesson, for external taxes all of the inhabitants, whether or not they are permanent residents, can be taxed. By external taxes it was meant taxes imposed on the Jewish community by the secular ruler of the country where the Jews resided (usually with his permission) and internal taxes are those taxes that the Jewish community imposed on its own residents for the normal operations of governmental functions.

Regarding internal taxes, the residents of the community are responsible for all of the normal taxes for the functioning of the community. The nonresidents are not responsible for such taxes except for such taxes that benefit them directly. If a person resides in the community for 12 months, even if he is only a renter, he is considered a resident. If a person remains in the residence due to outside forces, such as becoming sick or being unable to leave the community because of a war raging outside of the community that prevents him from leaving to return to his own home, such periods are not included in the 12 month period. However, while he remains there because of such external forces he does business in the community and profits from it, he must pay his share of the taxes. If a person purchases a residence and resides there, he is immediately considered a member of the community for tax purposes. If a person inherits a home or an apartment, or receives it by gift, he is given a reasonable amount of time to decide if he wants to reside there, or to be a non-resident home owner. If a person owns a home or an apartment in the community but actually resides in another community, there are certain exemptions from the full tax paid by the members of the community who reside in the community. If the tax moneys also pay for matters that are beneficial only to the residents of the community, the non- residents should be given an abatement in their taxes. In all these matters, if there is a custom in the community regarding such matters, the custom is controlling. If a person becomes subject to a tax, he may not avoid the tax by removing himself from the community. This is true even if the taxpayer leaves his community to go live in the Land of Israel. He is even responsible for external taxes that were imposed by the ruler within thirty days after he leaves the community. The reason is that the ruler generally takes more than thirty days to impose the tax and thus he imposed it based on the inhabitants who were in the community within 30 days before the tax was imposed. If the person who left the community pleads that he paid to the ruler his share of the external tax before he left the community and the ruler denies the allegation that the tax was paid, then the tax must be paid to the community. If the community for any reason does not collect or under collects a tax from one of the residents or non- residents, there is no statute of limitations and the tax may be collected at any time.

Certain exemptions from taxation
Those taxes that are allocated for the protection of the inhabitants of the community must be paid by all the inhabitants, including orphans; the only exception being Torah scholars. The theory being that the scholar’s Torah study will act as his protection. In other matters, the Torah scholar must also participate in the payment of taxes. (A person is considered a Torah scholar for the purpose of the exemption if his main occupation is the study of the Torah in its many aspects. It usually meant a person who devotes the majority of his waking hours studying the Talmud and its commentaries.) In some communities the synagogue functionaries are also exempt from some or all of the internal taxes. There are no exemptions from external taxes imposed on all the inhabitants. In these communities where members dig sewers and do other such tasks, the Torah scholar is exempt from such work. He need not pay to have a substitute do the work on his behalf.

Graduated Tax
The tax that is levied on the community is sometimes a graduated tax, with an increasing percentage tax corresponding to wealth; where the tax is not graduated, wealthier persons still pay a larger tax than the less wealthy, because even a flat rate for all the persons the taxable base of the wealthier persons is greater resulting in a greater absolute tax. There is also another criterion in levying the security tax where there is a wall around the city.

Those who receive more protection from the security services pay a higher tax. Where crime comes from outside the community, those living at the outskirts of the community need more protection than those close to the hub of the city. Therefore, those closer to the outskirts pay a higher tax than those in the center of the community. Also, since robbers are more apt to rob the rich than the poor, the wealthier persons pay a higher tax than the less wealthy. Combining those two standards, sometimes a wealthy person in the center of town pays about as much as a poor person on the edge of town. All these issues have to be decided by the Beit Din in the community. In times of war, when the walls of the city offer little protection, and the nearness to the walls is not a factor in determining the tax; then the criterion is the wealth of the inhabitants. The wealthy members of the community also pay a grater portion of the tax in matters in which they do not receive greater proportion of the benefit or in which they do not have any need at all, such as hiring teachers for the children of the community whose parents cannot afford to pay for such education, appointing a cantor for the synagogue, building a synagogue and building a wedding chapel.

The subject matter of this lesson is more fully discussed In Volume 5, Chapter 163 of A Restatement of Rabbinic Civil Law by Emanuel Quint. Copies of all volumes can be purchased at local Judaica bookstores. Questions to quint@inter.net.il

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