After 40 years of debate, tax supporters get religious practitioners to pay taxes on property, gifts and “illegal benefits”. For opponents, “Taxing religious practitioners equates religious activities with commercial activities.” Since the new law has a two-year grace period, opponents, especially Protestants, could get it overturned as presidential elections are set for 2017. Since the mid-1990s, Catholic priests already submit to a 10 per cent voluntary tax on their salary.

Seoul (AsiaNews) – After a debate stretching back more than 40 years, South Korea’s parliament has approved a bill that will finally compel the country’s clergy to pay taxes.

The new law was adopted shortly before midnight on Wednesday by 195 votes to 20, with 50 legislators abstaining. Until now, members of the clergy enjoyed a tax exemption regime since the military ruled the country following the civil war (1950-1953).

With the new rules, a sliding bracket means those earning 40 million won (US$ 35,000) or less a year will only be taxed on 20 per cent of their income. At the upper end, those earning more than 150 million won (US$ 130,000) will have to pay tax on 80 per cent of their income.

Property taxes however remain a contentious issue. With the new law, religious property would pay a one-time tax, unless it contained businesses, in which case it would pay the regular business tax.

South Korea has an estimated 360,000 priests and monks whose earnings will be re-classified as “religious income” rather than the current label of “honorarium”.

Not everyone is pleased. “Taxing religious practitioners equates religious activities with commercial activities,” a conservative Protestant group, the Commission of Churches in Korea, said in a statement.

Commission spokesman Choi Kwi-Soo also noted that, unlike monks and Catholic priests, Protestant clergymen generally marry and have families, and would be hardest hit. “They are different from monks or priests who can live on a relatively meagre income. That should be taken into account,” Choi said.

The late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, the highly regarded archbishop of Seoul, had already noted that diocesan priests have been voluntarily paying 10 per cent of their earnings to the state since the mid-1990s.

Many note that the most vocal opponents of the new policy belong to Protestant and Evangelical communities, whose pastors can often earn hefty salaries.

In recent years, some individual Protestant churches have come to boast enormous congregations, especially in Seoul, with considerable wealth generated from deals with various businesses, including the entertainment industry like the K-pop music scene.

In order to lessen any negative impact on religious groups, the government gave the tax bill a two-year grace period.

However, some believe that the real reason for the delay is South Korea’s presidential election at the end of 2017.

Since Protestants wield substantial political clout, they could sway the vote in order to get the new law repealed.

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