Should he use bank interest to pay off taxes?

Question It is compulsory on every resident (whether he is a citizen or not) in the country I live in to pay tax. Sometimes the tax that should be paid is too much, and sometimes it is normal. Some people think that the country does not have the right to collect taxes from people; so…

Question

It is compulsory on every resident (whether he is a citizen or not) in the country I live in to pay tax. Sometimes the tax that should be paid is too much, and sometimes it is normal. Some people think that the country does not have the right to collect taxes from people; so they use the interest they get from the banks to pay the tax. What is your opinion about this?.

Praise be to Allah.

It is not permissible to
deposit money in riba-based banks, unless that is necessary to protect the
money, if there is no Islamic bank that is free from riba. In that case one
must limit it to putting money in current accounts only [i.e., those that do
not bear interest], so as to commit the lesser of two evils, and because
necessity should not be exaggerated.

If any interest is paid on
the deposited money, then it must be got rid of, by spending it on various
charitable causes.

The Standing Committee for
Issuing Fatwas was asked: I am a student in Britain, and we have to pay some
taxes to the government, such as road tax and another tax (VAT) of 15% on
anything we buy except food and children’s clothing. Now there is a new tax
on municipal services which are provided the local municipality, such as
education, waste disposal, swimming pools, parks, leisure centres and social
services. Since we do not benefit from most of these services, as they are
contrary to the teachings of our religion, and we only benefit from
education, waste disposal and children’s playgrounds, and we are obliged to
pay these taxes, which are between 3000 and 4000 Saudi riyals per year, my
question is: Is it permissible for me to put some money in a deposit
account, which is a riba-based account that yields 12% interest per year,
and pay some of these taxes using this interest that I will get from this
account? Because paying these taxes will put pressure on me financially.

They replied: It is not
permissible for you to open an interest based account in order to pay off
taxes with this interest, because of the general meaning of the evidence
that riba is haraam. End quote.

Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn
Baaz, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Razzaaq ‘Afeefi, Shaykh ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Ghadyaan.

Fataawa al-Lajnah
al-Daa’imah (13/366)

See the answer to question no. 292

And Allaah knows best.

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