Tithing on the Net Increase, Not the Gross Return
This was posted.
Reselling Items - Income? If I buy a book for 35 dollars, read it, then sell it for 25, is that 25 dollars I made income, and thus I have to tithe it, or am I just recouping my cost and thus it is not income? Similarly, if a person buys a car and sells it years later for a lesser amount, is that money income and thus subject to tithing?
Answer: I assume that you have read my book, The Covenantal Tithe. If not, download it here: www.CovenantalTithe.com.
The tithe was paid in Mosaic Israel by farmers who had a profitable crop. This was paid to the Levites, who owned no rural land. The tithe was the inheritance of the Levites (Num. 18).
If a crop came in, but the locusts ate it, the farmer did not owe a tithe. I apply this principle to tax collectors. The payment is owed after locusts and other wealth-consuming beasts are finished.
The question here deals with a consumer good. The tithe was paid before the buyer purchased the book. There is no double payment in the Bible's concept of the tithe. So, someone may give away the book. The recipient does not owe a tithe.
The seller got back $25. That is a repayment of "seed corn." No tithe is owed on the $25.
What if he buys an item at a yard sale? It turns out that it is worth $1,000, but he paid only $25. He owes a tithe on the difference between the $1,000 and $25, but only if he sells it for $1,000 or trades it for an item worth $1,000.
The tithe is not designed to destroy capital. It is designed to honor God as the owner of property. God acts as an owner who delegates property to efficient, obedient trustees. He operates as an owner who sets up a sharecropping operation. He does not ask for 1% of the seed corn He supplied. He asks for 10% of the net. The sharecropper keeps 90% of this increase. It's like a commissioned salesman who gets a 90% commission. He has a sweet deal.
This is why I don't think Christians should complain about the fact that they are asked to tithe. This is a way that they can acknowledge that they are recipients of their capital, including their lives. This is simply an acknowledgment of their position as sharecroppers who brought no capital of their own into the transaction.
But remember this: God does not tax his own capital twice. Pay the tithe on the net increase, not the original grant of capital.