DON’T CHEAT YOURSELF – UNDERSTANDING, CALCULATION, MERITS AND DEMERITS OF TITHE PAYING

INTRODUCTION OF TITHE

The Scriptures say, “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.’ Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”

This bible account above is the very first recorded in the Bible in Genesis 14:18-20 when Abraham gave his tithes to Melchizedek, King of Salem – a tenth of all the spoils from thevictory over his enemies, when he rescued his nephew Lot. This account occurred actually before Israelites were commanded to acknowledge tithe, and later was mentioned in several passages of the scripture together with the blessings attached to practising it, where the book of Revelation 14:4 is the last time the Bible makes reference to this topic, when it refers to the redeemed as the “first fruits to God and to the Lamb.

Tithe simply means a tenth of hundred (10%) of an income.

CALCULATION

Though tithing is a very broad subject, and its calculation and payment has been made a controversial subject among people but yet let’s be rest assure it is very easy to calculate regardless the form of income only if we admit the importance of it and apply honesty in handling our tithes.

Now, let’s make use of the following illustrations given by Pastor Amani

(a) Employed people

Basic Salary – 10,000
Housing Allowance – 2,000
Transport Allowance – 1,500

Total of 13,500

Deductions:
1. TAX (P.A.Y.E)- 30% of basic salary
2. National Social Security Fund – 200
3. Cooperative Society (SACCO) – 1,000
4. Loan Repayment – 1,500

Note: this is just an example.
Taxation depends on governments fiscal policies which vary from one nation to another, while other items
quoted may be optional in most cases.

From the above figures, the actual
cash payment to this employee at
the end of the month will be:

Basic – 10,000
Housing Allowance – 2,000
Transport Allowance – 1,500

Gross Pay – 13,500

Less

P.A.Y.E. (30% of Basic Salary) – 3,000
National Social Security Fund – 200
Cooperative Society – 1,000
Loan Repayment – 1,500
Total Deductions – 5,700
Net Salary Paid – 7,800

Even though on paper this person
has a total pay packet of 13,500, the
actual take home is 7,800.
I recommend paying tithe on your
actual take home amount. This is
because this is what you have control over. So using our case above, the tithe payable is ten percent (10%) of 7,800. The tithe will thus be 780. However I will hasten to add here that if you prefer doing it this way, then it will be important for you to pay tithes on the benefits you draw from your cooperative society, National Social Security Fund and the loans you get.

The other common applicable approach is to pay tithe from your
gross pay less government taxes which in our case is can be calculated as follows:

Gross Salary – 13,500

Less

P.A.Y.E – 3,000
National Social Security Fund – 200
Net Amount to tithe on – 10,300

Tithe to be ten percent (10%) of
10,300 which is equal to 1,030. This
approach will then exempt you from
paying tithe on loans and other refunds you draw from cooperative
society etc.

P.A.Y.E and National Social Security
Fund deductions are statutory
government deductions that are
deducted at the source by the employer and the employee has no
control over that. In some countries or states we may have other additional statutory deductions.

Cooperative deductions and loan
repayment deductions are all private arrangements. They are not statutory or mandatory. The deductions are made because the worker chose to enjoy those facilities. So those deductions should be considered as monies received and then returned back voluntarily.

(b) Self Employed Business People
Self employed and business people should start by establishing a
trading cycle. This means they should know when they start a season or period of trading and when they complete it. A good example is closing accounts every end month to see profits made or analyzing a contract after completion to confirm profits made.

Then tithe should be based on the net profit realized not on the investment. Notice that net profit is calculated by removing expenses from the gross profit.

Take the following example for better understanding.

If you buy a product at 10,000 and sell it at 15,000, you have made gross profit of 5,000. But this is not your net profit since you must have incurred other costs in selling the item. Let us take for instance that you spent 300 to advertise the item in the local news paper, 200 to repackage the item and, 1000 to transport the item to the buyer.

The net profit will be worked as
follows:

Sale value – 15,000

Less

Purchase Price – 10,000
Advertising – 300
Repackaging – 200
Transport – 1,000
Total Cost – 11,500
Net profit = Sale minus total cost =
15,000 – 11,500 = 3,500

The net profit is 3,500 which should
be the basis of calculating your tithe.
The payable tithe in this instance is
ten percent of 3,500 which is 350.

ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
(Matthew 23:23)

The above statement was made by Jesus Christ, and there we could derive that tithing is one of the laws and not the only one to be observed to be a complete person before God.

Chapter 28 of the book of Deuteronomy listed the advantages and disadvantages of observing and not observing the law, which means the whole law and not one is greater than the other.

Tithe payment should come with joy and love and therefore should not make paying tithe look like a punishment. Also, it is important to understand that God’s blessing is attached to many different things and tithing alone without doing the rest will never merit a material increase or the benefits that awaits the observer of the law.