Common Taxes versus Religious Taxes in the Islamic Tax System

Nowadays tax plays an important role in financing the government budget and social security plans. The current paper tries to answer the question “whether we could differentiate between common taxes versus religious taxes from an Islamic perspective. The two types of taxes، we hypothesize، are different and hence their mobilization and expenditure are also different. The findings of the paper show that such a difference roots in the philosophy and functioning of these two types of taxes. Religious taxes are mostly considered as the right of the poor in the properties of the rich. In contrast، taxes are the costs of the services provided by the state for development and administrative affairs. One of the important advantages of the proposed distinction is the availability of different policies for mobilizing them. To cultivate tax morals for common taxes، it is recommended to concentrate on the link between the tax and the facilities provided for taxpayers. Religious taxes، however، could be encouraged by making a link between the tax and the facilities provided for poverty eradication and social security improvement. Rejecting tax exemption claims from facility taxes for social security taxpayers is another important requirement of the propose distinction between facility and social security taxes.