Theological Thoughts on Tithing
Four years ago, I had to respond to an IRS inquiry into a tax return that I had filed two years earlier. The inquiry was not an audit per se; it was focused on only one area of my tax return: charitable contributions. In order to answer the inquiry, I had to gather check records and receipts that supported my charitable contribution deduction and put them together in a 30-page document that I faxed to the IRS. It may have been fifty pages, but I am trying not to embellish the story. Other than an acknowledgment of receipt, I never heard anything more about it so I assumed my submission of information sufficed. Since I am painstakingly honest with my taxes, I wondered…what triggered the inquiry? I can’t be sure, but it may have been because the percentage of my income given to charitable contributions is higher than the average U.S. taxpayer, and that is because I tithe (that is, the giving of 10 percent of my income) to the church. Let me be clear: Tithing does not make me a super