An Account of the Governmental Place of Taxes in Imami Political Jurisprudence

Deficit or lack of necessary financial resources might pose a challenge to the legitimacy of a political system. Thus, every governmental system seeks to find a way out of this predicament. A common solution is to charge taxes in order to be able to afford governmental tasks. It might be claimed that this has been accepted by all communities, including the Islamic political system, as evidenced by Sharia taxes. Now if these Sharia resources fail to fulfil the needs of the Islamic government, then Islamic taxes (such as zakat and khums) should be supplemented by governmental taxes. Indeed, a tax consists in paying part of one’s incomes to the government. With such a religious approach, taxes might be imbued with piety—in addition to their material aspects, they might lead to one’s happiness in afterlife. Then, in order to make an optimal planning for tax collection, we need to refer to the axiological and religious system. This paper deploys a descriptive-analytic method to consider the role of taxes in the Islamic system. The findings reveal that taxes are strategic needs of governments, and the emphasis on their pious aspects facilitates their collection and ensures their enforcement.