A long list of the rich and famous including Lewis Hamilton, Bono, and the Queen, have been named by the BBC as having used “tax havens” following the latest leak of information from an offshore law firm.

Following the French term for “tax havens” as “fiscal paradises,” these stolen files have been called the “Paradise Papers.”

Clearly an offshore finance centre is not the Christian idea of Paradise (although the description of heaven that “the sun shall never plague them” does remind me of the Isle of Man), but what are the ethics of this situation? Are these arrangements something a Christian can take part in?

Render unto Caesar

First, and most obviously, the Bible tells us that we must obey the laws of the place that we live, including paying taxes. That is the “render unto Caesar” that Jesus commanded, expanded by St. Paul who makes it clear that paying tax is part of our general duty of obedience to the government.

However, the obligation to obey the law may not be unlimited. Some laws should be broken, and there is a long Christian tradition of civil disobedience when necessary. (Indeed the information used by the BBC was obtained...

Pope Francis has urged European political leaders to reduce government spending and lower taxes.

Well, he didn’t actually say that directly, but that is the unavoidable logic of his comments, although he might not understand enough economics to realise it.

“No peace without employment”

On March 24, 2017, European leaders gathered to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome that founded the European Union. They were addressed by the pope.

In this address, the pope repeatedly stressed the importance of the European Union working for the benefit of its citizens, to allow them the opportunity to find employment, financial improvement, and prosperity.

The European Union should not be a matter of grand politics and bureaucratic treaties; instead, said the pope, “Europe finds new hope when man is the centre and the heart of her institutions.”

He approvingly quoted the address of Paul-Henri Spaak, the former Prime Minister of Belgium and one of the founding fathers of the European Union, on the signing of the Treaty of Rome. In 1957, he described the goal of the European Union as “the material prosperity of our peoples, the expansion of our economies … new industrial and commercial possibilities.”

In Great Britain, celebrity tax avoidance is back in the news again. The most recent allegation came Thursday against retired sports star and current announcer Gary Lineker, whom the Daily Mail branded a “holier than thou hypocrite” for speaking up on political issues while engaging in tax avoidance.

In recent months, the government has been consumed with another form of tax avoidance, investigating professional footballers (or pro soccer players as they are called in the U.S.) over offshore “image rights” payments. So serious is this form of tax avoidance that the chief executive of tax inspectors with Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) recently described it as “the most significant risk in football,” with 43 players and 12 clubs under investigation.

It has even spawned a new word: “netto” – not the discount supermarket chain but the footballers’ focus on their after-tax, or net, income.

How does this work?

For some of the top players, instead of just being paid for playing football there are instead two payments; a salary for playing football, plus an “image rights” payment when photographs or videos of the players are used in advertisements, branding, and other marketing materials.

The footballing salary is paid to the...