26 November

Today's the day when in 1992 it was announced that The Queen would begin to pay income tax. Prime Minister John Major told the House of Commons that The Queen had informed him she wished to make changes to her tax arrangements so that, for the first time since the 1930s, the monarch would pay tax. Under these changes she also took responsibility for the working expenses of most of her family so that only The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and the then Queen Mother would be paid by the public.

Questions about who should pay taxes have continued throughout history. One time some opponents of Jesus tried to trick him into an act of rebellion against the Roams with a question about taxes. This is how Mark chapter 12 records the conversation:

Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn't we?"
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
"Caesar's," they replied.
Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."
And they were amazed at him.

Most people are not unduly enthusiastic about paying taxes, even though we have to do it. Jesus shows us there is a far bigger question to face: not, how much do we pay to the state, but how much do we give to God? That’s the real life-defining question.