If the Unthinkable Happened.12 Oct 2012 04:23 pm
By The Wiz
If the unthinkable happened, and your husband died, and you received life insurance money (you DO have life insurance right??), would you pay tithing on it?
Keep in mind that life insurance money is not taxed, so you would not lose a large chunk of it that way.
This came up recently, and it was really interesting to hear what people had to say.
Me, I think I would pay tithing on it. You, it’s your call, between you and the Lord. I know I would discuss it with my bishop. But then, I hope none of us ever have to deal with it.
(On a completely lighter, totally shameless promotional thought, my friend wrote this app called Solar Warfare that is totally cool. You should buy it. But maybe not with life insurance money.)
I would say definitely not. This is not money that is earned, and the whole idea of life insurance is to compensate for losing the possible future wages of the spouse who dies. It would be like paying tithing on money that is a gift when you graduate or get married. It doesn’t make much sense to me, and seems to go against what tithing represents. That is just me though.
Comment #1 by ChariseOctober 12th, 2012 at 5:39 pmNope. Not earned income. I also don’t pay on gifts, scholarships, or grants. I don’t pay tithing on income from selling small items on Craigslist, and I don’t intend to pay tithing when selling my house or car.
I don’t know what we’ll decided about Social Security, pension, and retirement investments because those are 30+ years away.
Comment #2 by HokieKateOctober 12th, 2012 at 6:13 pmI would pay tithing on it, but then I know that whole crazy bit when your husband wakes up and has to have brain surgery and there goes your income and you feel so trapped and helpless. But you know, that whole experience taught me that the Lord will meet your needs. Everything positive in our lives is from him and the miracles and blessings are unexpected and awesome. I would pay, it’s the very least I could do. (Well, besides service and loving others.
Comment #3 by all8gardenOctober 12th, 2012 at 8:39 pmSee, I DO pay tithing on gifts, and I paid tithing when I sold my house for more than I paid for it. I don’t pay tithing on things I sell on Craigslist or a garage sale, because I never get what I paid for it, much less make a profit on it. So do you only consider earned income your “increase?” It’s interesting to hear the different perspectives.
As to retirement investments, right now we pay tithing on gross income minus what we put away for retirement, so anything that comes out of that account in 30 years or so we will pay tithing on. We figured that was easier than trying to figure out what was an increase and what was our initial investment.
Comment #4 by The WizOctober 12th, 2012 at 9:08 pmI’m not sure. Some say to pay money on gifts, and others say net income, not gross. I think I might not. I mean our life insurance is to help the widow or widower pay for burial and stay afloat by paying off big debts and education for the children and me, so I can go back to work, and start earning money. If it were a super large amount, and meant to pay for my living till I died, then definitely.
My in-laws are rather old, and haven’t been able to go to church. My MIL was voicing concern to my husband about not being able to pay tithing, and he was trying to convince her that she really didn’t need to pay tithing because it was money that they had already earned and paid tithing on. My MIL didin’t see it that way. It’s their income, they should pay tithing.
Now that I think about it, we just pay tithing on income, and not the interests or dividends of our retirement, roth, or even regular accounts. I’ve never even thought about paying tithing on money from a home investment. So many sources of income, no matter how small.
Comment #5 by LaceyOctober 12th, 2012 at 9:24 pmI was married at 19, and became a widow at 20. I got a large lump sum and I payed tithing. It was a bigger check than I had ever written for anything in my life, and it was unmistakably the right thing for me to do. And it wasn’t easy either.
Comment #6 by JenniferOctober 12th, 2012 at 9:50 pmAs a former bishop, I would leave the decision to the widow in consultation with the Lord. My duty would be to help her emotional healing.
Comment #7 by wonderdogOctober 13th, 2012 at 4:53 amI would invest the money and live off the interest until I was ready for full-time work. And I would pay tithing on the interest I was using, as opposed to the lump sump.
Comment #8 by Tiffany W.October 13th, 2012 at 4:54 amBut, were MY wife to pass. I would pay tithing on the life insurance. When my son passed, I paid tithing on the life insurance.
Comment #9 by wonderdogOctober 13th, 2012 at 4:54 amI know my mom paid tithing on it, but I think I’d be inclined just to pay tithing on what I take out from the interest earned and such. I’m disabled and highly unlikely to be able to return to the workforce, but got to that point at a young enough age that I hadn’t earned enough work credits to get disability. If my husband dies, that life insurance money is going to have to somehow last me the rest of my life. Taking 10% off the top like that is going to significantly decrease my ability to stretch it out like that.
Comment #10 by FirebyrdOctober 13th, 2012 at 5:58 amI’ve never paid tithing on gifts that aren’t money as it just never occurred to me to do so, but Brian always had - until he married me and I just was so shocked at how ridiculous it seemed that he stopped. Does the Lord really expect me to tithe a gift I either have no idea of the value of, or do know the value and could scarcely afford the tithing “required” of it? I think no.
Any monetary increase I feel compelled by the Spirit to tithe. Even (regretful sigh) life insurance. As much as it has and would pain me to do so (I once had a sizable inheritance from my grandmother that required a four-figure tithing check); I choose to believe the blessings will be greater than any satisfaction of wants granted or relief of need than if I don’t. That could just be something I tell myself, but that’s the great thing about God - only He is our judge, not anyone else, including the church.
Not tax returns as we pay tithing on the gross and that would be “double dipping” so to speak, but on anything more than what we actually paid we do tithe. We also try to pay 1% of our net in Fast Offerings. On our income it isn’t much, especially 13 years ago, but in one ward where there were MANY older families much more affluent than us, we were shocked to find in tithing settlement that we were one of three most “generous”. I use that term loosely because our offering seems pathetically small, but ever since that statement we’ve tried even harder to increase it because it seems more important than most people understand. And no, that bishop wasn’t naming names or anything sinister - he just took point to thank us since there were also many less fortunate in our ward that had great need of more people to give to that fund.
Comment #11 by SallygirlOctober 13th, 2012 at 9:19 amOh, Sallygirl, I meant just monetary gifts, too. I don’t pay tithing on say, a sweater.
Comment #12 by The WizOctober 13th, 2012 at 10:56 amI didn’t pay on my wife’s life insurance, as much because she was underinsured as for any other reason. Her coverage didn’t even pay all the funeral expenses, let alone anything else. The question of tithing is an interesting one, but the idea that you should have full coverage is the more important one.
My thought is that tithing is supposed to be on your increase. I don’t think life insurance proceeds are any more of an increase than having your car insurance pay for a repair after an accident. Insurance is supposed to be a replacement of a loss, not an addition to what you already have.
Comment #13 by CS EricOctober 13th, 2012 at 12:04 pmI agree with CS Eric. Tithing is paid on our increase - and I guess it all depends on what your perspective of an increase is. He stated it well - “insurance is supposed to be a replacement of a loss, not an addition to what you already have.”
That being said, tithing has to be a personal decision between you and the Lord. Some pay on gross income, some pay on net income. Both are considered full tithe payers if that is what they claim to be. Who are we to say?
Just my two bits. . . . . .
Comment #14 by m e lOctober 15th, 2012 at 4:51 pmRight now I don’t pay tithing on anything that goes into a 401k or ROTH or other retirement vehicle because when we withdraw it in 30+ years I don’t want to have to figure out what % is principle and what is interest and pay on interest. I’ll just plan on paying 10% on whatever we withdraw. So I’d do the same with our life insurance. I wouldn’t pay on the full initial payment. I’d just pay on whatever I take out to use. We got enough that we could invest it conservatively and get by on the interest for a long time. We have a daughter with extensive medical bills, so it’s designed to cover us for the rest of her life and not just be used to pay the mortgage and funeral expenses.
However, my grandmother recently passed away and because we just put the inheritance in the bank, we paid tithing on it.
And I do pay tithing on cash gifts. I figure those are part of my increase. But I don’t pay it on non-monetary gifts.
Comment #15 by EmilyOctober 18th, 2012 at 9:05 amI am late but I wanted to mention that my grandparents always paid tithing (real cash) on the apricots from their yard. They rounded them up and calculated the price of the crop and then tithed it monetarily.
I don’t know what is right or wrong in the Lord’s eyes but I bet He is generous with those who are generous to Him. Not necessarily monetarily generous, but generous nonetheless.
Comment #16 by RedOctober 23rd, 2012 at 12:28 pmsallygirl: I wanted to make a comment about fast offerings. One year my husband and I purchased a few $100 gift cards at Christmas and gave them to the bishop to distribute to families in need. We later found out that the bishop held onto them for nearly a year before giving them away and we had a very needy ward. We were both shocked.
My husband and I often give generously (and anonymously) to families in our stake without giving the money first to the fast offerings. We still do a fast offering but I was really uncomfortable with the fact that our previous bishop had held onto those gift cards when we specifically bought them to distribute at Christmas. We had many, many needy families that he could have given them to. Now we simply ask or pay attention to see who is in need and give directly to the family. Our fast offerings are considerably less than they would be if we weren’t doing this.
My whole point is those families in your ward who were giving low fast offerings may have been giving to families in your ward in other ways (like we do) or donating generously to local charities.
Additionally, as a convert to the church I was taught to donate the cost of the two meals I would be missing which if you factor a mid-range restaurant is only between $10-20. I have never heard any instruction in any of the wards I’ve attended to give more than the cost of two meals. I’ve never heard 1% of income as a fast offering
Comment #17 by MDNovember 5th, 2012 at 9:00 am