Faith Should Lift People Up — Not Just Assets Out

By Mark Lloyd Pedersen 

New Zealand is a modern, mostly secular society. Yet some of the most powerful, wealthiest institutions in the country—organised religions—remain largely untaxed, unaudited, and immune from the financial transparency we demand of nearly every other sector.

In 2018, nearly half of all New Zealanders (48.2%) identified as having no religion, and the numbers have only grown since. Among younger Kiwis, secularism is even more dominant. Yet large religious institutions continue to operate with tax exemptions dating back to an era when religion was central to daily life and public services.

This isn't about punishing belief. It’s about asking a basic civic question:

> If faith is truly about serving others, then why isn’t the Church’s wealth serving the communities it profits from?

The Proposal: Faith and Fairness

I've developed a simple, pragmatic tax model called Faith and Fairness. It’s built on one principle:

> The more money a church reinvests into New Zealand communities, the less tax it pays. The more it sends offshore or hoards in assets, the more it contributes back to the public.

The proposal introduces a sliding-scale tax on surplus income (after costs), based on how much is spent on measurable, local public good—like housing support, food banks, mental health initiatives, and education.

% of Local Reinvestment Tax on Surplus

80%+ 0% (full exemption)

60–79% 5%

40–59% 10%

20–39% 15%

< 20% 25%

Additional levies would apply to funds sent overseas (such as to the Vatican or international diocesan HQs) and large property-holding trusts that don’t actively fund social impact.

This model wouldn’t apply to grassroots churches doing real work on the ground. It targets only well-capitalised, bureaucratic religious institutions that often function like multinational franchises: collecting from the poor, investing in the elite, and quietly extracting wealth from the very communities they claim to serve.

---Why This Matters

Religious institutions in New Zealand—manage tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars annually in untaxed revenue, including:

Parish donations

Attendance dues and private school levies

Rental and investment income

Vast real estate holdings

Many of these funds are kept within opaque trust structures or sent offshore. Meanwhile, New Zealand taxpayers foot the bill for growing gaps in housing, mental health, education, and food security.

If even a small percentage of religious surpluses were taxed or redirected, it could free up government resources and create lasting community benefits—without touching your paycheck or raising GST.

-This Isn’t About Belief