Ted Afield (Georgia State) presents A Catholic Social Teaching Approach to Tax Administration and Enforcement and From Rerum Novarum to Modern Catholic Thought today at Georgia, as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series hosted by Assaf Harpaz:

This article explores modern Catholic perspectives on taxation, from Rerum Novarum to the present day, using the United States as a case example to illustrate how one country’s Catholic thinkers have applied more generalized Vatican statements on the issue. While modern Catholic social teaching has only addressed taxation to a limited degree, it has situated it within key pillars of Catholic social teaching, such as the common good, subsidiarity, solidarity, and a preferential option for the poor. Modern Catholic social teaching on taxation engages with the tension between solidarity and subsidiarity, two foundational principles of Catholic social thought. Whereas solidarity emphasizes the interdependence of members within a community and their shared responsibility towards each other, subsidiarity argues for decentralization, asserting that social issues should be dealt with at the most local level possible. As a result, the preferential option for the poor serves as a mediating principle to help resolve this tension. This chapter describes the relevant Catholic social teaching principles and then traces both Vatican statements and the views of United States thinkers throughout the late-nineteenth, twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries to provide a picture of the current state of Catholic thought on taxation in the United States as an example of the application of limited modern Vatican guidance on taxation.

For more information on the Tax Policy Colloquium, please contact Assaf Harpaz.