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Paying taxes is an ethical and halakhic obligation of the highest order. After all, taxes enable the provision of critical public services, including security, police, education, health, social security, welfare, water, sewage, electricity, transport infrastructure, and environmental protection. Those who cheat on their taxes are stealing from the community, which is much worse than stealing from an individual.
Many people have issues with the government and the services it provides, but these issues should not detract from their tremendous importance. Our Sages state: “Pray for the welfare of the government. For if not for fear of it, people would eat one another alive” (Ethics of the Fathers 3:2). This directive was referring to the wicked Roman government, which destroyed the Temple and exiled us from our Land. It is even truer when we are talking about the State of Israel, whose government is guided by the principles of justice and integrity that are part of our Jewish heritage. Every resident of Israel is the beneficiary of the good things generated by tax revenue. Those who cheat on their taxes are theives, exploiters, and ingrates repaying good with evil.
True, there are ethical disagreements about how heavily to tax whom, and how to distribute the revenue among all the different institutions and sectors. However, the decisions reached by the representatives of the people are decisions that obligate us all. Every community grants its representatives the authority to make these decisions, and the decisions made by the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) and the government obligate everyone in the State. The same is true of course in all law-abiding democracies.
