Supreme Court rejects plea to exempt salaried nuns from paying income tax

Missionaries believed that nuns and priests entered civil death when they took a vow of poverty and were not required to pay taxes. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Supreme Court on Thursday (November 7, 2024) dismissed 93 petitions from various missionaries seeking to exempt salaried nuns from paying income tax.

Missionaries believed that nuns and priests entered civil death when they took a vow of poverty and were not required to pay taxes.

However, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud disagreed.

The court said anyone receiving a salary, whether a nun or not, must pay taxes. “The law is common to all…how can you say it is not subject to TDS?” asked the CJI.

“When an organization pays a salary, whether retained by an individual or paid elsewhere, whether by the parish or another person, it has nothing to do with taxation,” the chief justice reasoned.

The missionaries argued that the salaries were not for the sisters’ personal expenses but for their respective churches.

They believe that nuns take the three sacred vows of obedience, chastity and poverty after undergoing rigorous training. They could not own property or marry. The nuns lived an ascetic life. The income they earn belongs to their congregation, and tax returns are filed when necessary.

“Once a person takes a vow of poverty, she condemns all earthly ties to her natural family. She undergoes civil death. Even if a nun’s biological parent dies intestate, the assets of the deceased parent do not pass On to the nun. The nun submitted, argued.

Various church orders have challenged a directive issued by the Income Tax Department on December 1, 2014 to education authorities and district finance officers requiring tax deduction at source for members of religious groups who draw salaries from the government.

The order was challenged in the Kerala High Court but unsuccessfully. The high court concluded that canon law principles such as religious groups’ “overriding rights over their members” cannot override civil law.