Should he offer the clerk some money in order to reduce the amount of taxes he pays?

Q) I own three trucks for transporting water. I have a governmental job now. At the end of every month a clerk calculates how many loads every truck has transported, and then asks me to confirm this with the department of taxes.
When I went to the department of taxes, I was asked to open a file for every truck; I thus will have to pay taxes on every truck from the date the truck was manufactured! This means that I will pay more than all that the car made. Maybe half the actual price of the truck!
I found another services office that does the same job but without opening any files, but it charges an extra amount on the actual amount I should pay as taxes. Is it permissible for me to continue the procedure with this office? Bear in mind that I am not sure if this office works or not with the department of taxes.

A) Praise be to Allaah.

The ruling on taxes has been discussed previously. The basic principle is that taxes are not allowed, because they are a haraam maks. See the answer to question no. 39461.

There is nothing wrong with avoiding them by doing something that does not cause one more harm, even if that requires paying some money.

Ibn Abi Shaybah narrated in his Musannaf (5/233) from al-Qaasim ibn ‘Abd al-Rahmaan that when Ibn Mas’ood came to Abyssinia, he was arrested for some reason, and he gave them two dinars so that they would let him go.

Taqiy al-Deen al-Subki (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: What is meant by the bribe that we mentioned is what is given in order to deny a right or attain something wrongfully. If it is given in order to get a judgement concerning one's rights, then the prohibition applies to the one who takes it. As for the one who will not be able to get his rights without giving it, it is permissible (for him to give it), but if he is able to get his rights without it, then it is not permissible. The same applies to what is given for governorships and positions, it is haraam for the taker in all cases, and in the case of the giver, it depends on what we have referred to above. End quote from Fataawa al-Subki (1/204).

Based on that, there is nothing wrong with you dealing with that office, whether they deal with the tax department or not, so long as you cannot find any way to avoid or reduce your taxes apart from that.

See also the answer to question no. 25758.

And Allaah knows best.


Islam Q&A