Christian family in Australia refused to pay income tax because it's 'against God's will'
An Australian Christian family have been fined over £1m after they refused to pay any income tax for years because it went “against God’s will”.
Since 2011, Rembertus Cornelis Beerepoot and Fanny Alida Beerepoot, of Tasmania, did not pay a penny in income tax to Australia’s tax office.
The Beerepoots' farm was seized by their local council in 2017 but the siblings remained defiant.
Ms Beerepoot told the court: "We don't own anything because we are [God's]."
After failing to pay around £930,000 (£524,000) in income tax and other charges, the pair argued in the Supreme Court of Tasmania that the law of God is the “supreme law of this land”.
Mr Beerepoot added that forcing people to pay tax was weakening their dependency on God - which would ultimately lead to "curses... in the form of droughts and infertility”.
According to ABC, Mr Beerepoot added: "Transferring our allegiance from God to the Commonwealth would mean rebelling against God and therefore breaking the first commandment.”
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Despite their religious defence, Associate Justice Stephen Holt said the Beerepoots’ argument was not supported by the Bible.
He told them: "In my view, the Bible effectively said that civil matters and the law of God operate in two different spheres.”
Ms Beerepoot was ordered to pay $1.17m (£654,000) and Mr Beereport $1.16m (£649,000) to cover "income tax, administrative penalties and general interest charges" and other costs.
