Are taxes permissible in Shari’ah ? : permissibility of taxes ?

Fatawa Question

Assalamoalaikum brother, I wanted to know the shariah ruling on the taxes that the government charges its citizens ? Is it allowed or prohibited by the shariah or does it depend upon the nature of taxes. As far as I know the government charges us taxes because it provides services to us e.g. in the construction of roads, bridges, dams, and other government services. I used to be a government employee. I used to work for Pakistan's space research department. Now as my understanding goes the government takes taxes from the people for the services that it provides them with like the service I worked for. So my salary was probably from these taxes as far as my understanding goes. I may be wrong Allah knows best. I read your fatwa on islamonline.net which says that taking of taxes in countries such as oil producing countries may not be permitted but what about third world countries such as Pakistan ? There is a philosophy that taxes are imposed upon people but how will the government and the country flourish if the government doesn’t charge its citizens for the services provided to them ? If taxes are not Islamic then what is the Islamic alternative ? And what should the government employees do ? I will be awaiting your response InshaAllah.

Fatwa

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Publication Date

2007-06-30

Main Subjects

Economics & Business Administration
Islamic Studies

No. of Pages

2

Data Type

Fatawa

Language

English

Record ID

BIM-786673

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