"Pope To Condemn Tax Evasion"

Paul Caron reports:

From the Times of London:  Pope Set to Declare Income Tax Evasion "Socially Unjust" by Richard Owen:

Pope Benedict XVI is working on a doctrinal pronouncement that will condemn tax evasion as “socially unjust”, according to Vatican sources. In his second encyclical – the most authoritative statement a pope can issue – the pontiff will denounce the use of “tax havens” and offshore bank accounts by wealthy individuals, since this reduces tax revenues for the benefit of society as a whole. ...

This week the Italian centre-left Government of Romano Prodi began a concerted crackdown on tax evaders, saying that it would target individuals with second homes and other signs of “conspicuous wealth”. If the black economy is included, unpaid taxes amount to 27% of Italy’s gross domestic product. Mr Prodi, a devout Catholic, urged church leaders to speak out on tax evasion, telling the Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana that a third of Italians heavily evaded taxes, which were needed to plug Italy’s huge budget deficit. “Why, when I go to Mass, is this issue almost never touched upon in homilies?” Mr Prodi asked, adding: “If memory serves, St Paul exhorted the faithful to obey authority.”

I hope this document attends carefully to the non-trivial challenge of defining "tax evasion."   I hope it does not suggest that there is a general moral obligation to avoid actions that "reduce[] tax revenues for the benefit of society as a whole."  (The issue, it seems to me, in "tax evasion" should be law-breaking.)  And, I hope it at least acknowledges the possibilty that some tax policies that are motivated by a desire or packaged as efforts to raise "revenues for the benefit of society as a whole" can in fact reduce both social welfare and the well being of the poor.  (The piece above notes that "tax evasion" is making it difficult to "plug Italy's huge budget deficit."  I hope, then, that the document will at least suggest the possibility that waste and overspending by the state raises moral questions, too.)