"Someone always pays"
If God didn't want taxpayers to pay taxes, he wouldn't have created either. The 1% avoided taxes, and the empire fell. If Jesus didn't want taxpayers to pay taxes, he would have said "Render unto God that which is Caesar's".
Pay your taxes, says the Torah
The rabbis took such a dim view of tax avoidance that they even cited it as a cause of the destruction of the Temple
The controversy over those who seek to avoid paying taxes may have hit the headlines recently, but is also to be found in the Bible and rabbinic literature.
Taxes themselves go right back to Leviticus, although in those days it was called a tithe, and was levied on the then major commodities: grain, wine, oil, cattle and sheep.
Its initial purpose was as support for those who did not produce their own food, the priests and Levites who supervised the religious rites; it then developed during the period of the kings to finance the royal officials and a standing army.
Taxes were the price the Israelites paid for communal organisation, as we still do. Moreover, from early on they included an element of social responsibility, for part of the revenue raised went to the poor.
It is also the case that so long as there has been tax, there has been avoidance. The Talmud tells of those who attempt to dodge their dues and describes them as not just common thieves but “robbers of the public” who offend against the community as a whole (Baba Batra 35b, 88b).
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