The role of religious taxes in social welfare

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

There are different natural and unnatural social factors that hinder obtaining enough income to cover even the least needs of a family. Gathering together, the factors are the main generator of poverty. Today, resource limitations and increasing expectations makes it difficult to do proper actions. In Islam, the logic of religious taxes, specially the obligatory ones, which are legislated by religious law and are religious main obligations after prayer, is subject to the repair the gap between poor and wealthy class.
Unfortunately, our society not only is failed in the repair, but also the gap is increasingly got deeper and bigger. The only way to combat the crises is to utilize the existing local opportunities of different aspects of society (precise distribution of income).
Religious taxes are one of the helpful resources that can provide significant financial supply to repair the gap between social classes and to remove poverty.
In the article, which is the report of a field study in the city of Shal, Qazvin, the amount of religious taxes (especially one fifth) will be studies. The research result shows that this resource is able to remove poverty, and can remove the poverty line up to 60%.