SAMOA – Samoa’s government is eyeing up the millions of tala it will collect from church ministers if they are required to pay taxes.

“The plan is for everyone to be treated the same and that includes paying taxes by all employees,” said Minister of Revenue Tialavea Leniu Hunt in the first day of public consultation on whether the Head of State and church ministers should pay taxes on their incomes.

The current Inland Revenue Act excludes not only the church ministers but also the Head the State from paying any taxes,

The Ministry is currently looking at amending the exemptions in a stated desire to create fair and balance treatment of all people.

The Act also exempts employees earning less than $12,000 tala a year.

Tialavea says the Ministry’s role is to find means of securing funds to help finance the development of the country and this includes the idea of being able to collect $4.5 million from church ministers taxes alone in the first year.

Considering the amount of money received by church ministers differ from parish to parish, it was suggested that the Ministry should monitor this to ensure that the right amount received by the church minister’s is correctly entered in the tax forms.

Tialavea said the Ministry’s focus is on how much the church ministers collects from church members – the alofa or peleti – and excludes the church members’ contribution for the development of the church.

Tialavea further explained that if the yearly salary of a person is $12,000 and less, then that person is tax free. But if the salary is between $12,000 and $15,000 then a 10 per cent tax is payable.

The salary range between $15,000 and $20,000 is taxed 20 per cent and $20,000 and above is taxed 27 per cent.

The issue is not new, as it was first discussed in 1970, then again in 1997 and church ministers have already been consulted in this latest round of discussions with varying responses.

Asked why it took so long and there has not been a decision on the issue, Tialavea said there are no records of any consultation in the past, although it has been confirmed that the issue was discussed.

The Ministry plans to collate all views and opinions from the public for a report and recommendation to Cabinet.

Tialavea further explained that should taxing church ministers be accepted then all church ministers would be registered just like all other workers and employees.

The question of double taxing was also raised, especially in the case of church ministers that are serving parishes and employed elsewhere at the same time.

“They will be taxed by their alofa or peleti, but as for their salaries from other employment, that will be considered their second income,” said Tialavea.

“There will be no double taxing of anyone,” Tialavea said.

The consultation was this seek to shift to Savaii to gather more public views on the issue.

- Talamua