“The Pump Is Running Away From Them”: An Adventist Leader Asks Government to Stop Taxing Pastors’ Travel Allowances

• Pastor Glen Samuels asked the government to remove tax from clergy travel allowances
• He said a 29 per cent tax applies to allowances that do not rise with fuel prices
• The request covers 52 pastoral districts in the west and 167 nationwide
• He made the appeal at a re-installation service in Mount Salem, Montego Bay

As fuel prices climbed, a senior Seventh-day Adventist leader asked the government for relief for pastors. Pastor Glen O Samuels, president of the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, called for the removal of tax on clergy travel allowances, the Jamaica Observer reported.

Samuels spoke at a re-installation ceremony at Kings Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mount Salem, Montego Bay. Minister of State Homer Davis was there representing Prime Minister Andrew Holness. Samuels explained that pastors travel every day to minister and to counsel people in their homes. Their travel allowance is taxed at 29 per cent, and it is fixed while the cost of fuel keeps rising. “The travel we pay them is fixed while the pump is running away from them,” he said.

He stressed that the request was not only for his own region. “We speak not just for the 52 pastoral districts in the west but we have 167 pastoral districts across Jamaica,” he said.

The Observer noted that fuel prices, pushed higher by the war in Ukraine, were affecting every part of the economy. The government had announced relief measures worth $3.8 billion, and the Opposition had called for the special consumption tax on fuel to be removed.

Samuels’s appeal is about the running costs of church life, which are easy to overlook. A pastor who covers several congregations spread across rural hills spends heavily on fuel and vehicle upkeep. When allowances are taxed and fixed, either the pastor absorbs the cost or the church budget has to stretch. That money competes with building repairs, utilities and loan payments. Congregations reviewing their finances should look at the full cost of pastoral care, including travel, housing and vehicles. They should also get professional advice on how allowances are structured, so that money raised for ministry and maintenance is not lost to avoidable costs.

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