A Family Who Argued That Taxes Were "Against God's Will" Has Been Ordered to Pay $2.3 Million In Taxes
Christian missionaries Fanny Alida Beerepoot and Rembertus Cornelis Beerepoot faced the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Wednesday after they both failed to pay an estimated $930,000 in income tax and other charges in 2017.
In their submissions, Mr Beerepoot said Australian taxation law was contrary to the law of “Almighty God”.
Justice Holt ordered Mr and Ms Beerepoot pay an estimated $1.159 million and $1.166 million respectively, covering income tax debt, administrative costs, interest charges and running balance account deficit debts.
Look I’m not going to get into interpreting what the Bible says or doesn’t say about paying taxes, but I always do love an elaborate scheme to get out of something. It’s like when Ferris Bueller had a full proof three-step plan to faking sick and getting out of school. That shit was inspirational to kids across the world.
What a genius. Now while Ferris did get out of school for the day, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at during your teenage years, I’ve learned there are much bigger adult rewards that people now chase with their mastermind schemes. And perhaps the biggest of them all is how to evade taxes. Income taxes range anywhere from 10% to 37% of your pay based on how much you bring home, so yeah…people try to get out of that, especially the big money makers. Al Capone, Pete Rose, Wesley Snipes, Willie Nelson, Lindsay Vonn, Martha Stewart and many other celebrities have gone through great lengths to try and evade their taxes, but they all ended up paying them and then some. So what this family figured is that sometimes, less is more. They came up with a very simple idea: taxes are against God’s will. Someone prove they’re not!
Unfortunately, the Judge did…
“If you can’t find me a passage in scripture or gospel that says ‘thou shall not pay tax’ then can you see I have difficulty finding a starting point?” Justice Holt asked.
Damn. Straight and to the point. If God wanted you to not pay taxes, he would’ve put that right in the 10 Commandments. Open and shut case. So now this couple has to pay $2.3 million back to the government. Thoughts and prayers to them.