The ruling on giving a bribe to government officials in exchange for not paying taxes.

The Shaykh : The state demands the taxes it has imposed on these establishments, and the negligence of the officials is due to the prevalence of bribes, or perhaps the state is not actually imposing taxes on these establishments. In the first case: the ruling here is the same as the ruling on all imposed taxes from which taxpayers seek to escape by means of bribery. It is well known that this is not permissible. However, if the matter is as you described, there is no harm in giving the bribe to this person to ward off his greed, which stems from his own character and not from an established system that we are unable to disobey. I think the answer is clear.

The questioner : Yes, of course, it is clear, my Shaykh. Now, there is a detail, my Shaykh. If the matter that occurred was as you mentioned, and the matter that occurred was the closure of the shop, then necessarily an order came, for example, to close the shop. Giving this bribe now is not a matter of violating the rule; we have already taken the ruling on that violation. Now, it is more than a violation; it is the sealing of the shop.

The Shaykh : Was the shop sealed according to the regulations?

The questioner : According to the regulations, of course, by law. It is that you are in violation and have not paid what is required of you. So now the law says we will seal your shop. So now, either he seals his shop, or, in their terms, he appeases this official so that it is settled and so on.

The Shaykh : The answer is understood. There is nothing new in the matter. What is the difference, I mean, between what we explained and what you are saying now?

The questioner : But, my Shaykh, in this situation, it will mean, so to speak, that he is being overcharged.

The Shaykh : All taxes are a harm.

The questioner : The tax, my Shaykh, whether it rises to ten, twenty, thirty, a hundred, two hundred dinars—this is a warehouse that contains, as they say, thousands of dinars, which are these bales. So if these thousands are closed up and do not reach the market, it means a great harm, I mean.

The Shaykh : I do not know. I do not think the matter is that it is closed forever. It is not reasonable that it is closed to pay the fees.

The questioner : I mean, a month, two months, a period of time like that.

The Shaykh : The important thing is that it is closed to pay the fees due to the violation. The case returns to the detail we mentioned: is the state imposing a tax that aligns with the tax system, an annual tax on this shop, or not? If not, then this official wants to take a bribe, so it is given to him. If so, the shop owner is negligent because he knows that the state is imposing taxes and he does not pay them, the second time, the third time, and so on, until the matter is discovered. There is nothing new in this explanation, so the answer is the same.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : There is a message here that was "The Broad Outlines." I do not know what it is.

The questioner : We returned it.

The Shaykh : Brothers, this is a vocative with a deleted noun, the tool of calling. So you need to say it a second time, "May Allah reward you, our Shaykh."

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good, if Allah wills.

The Shaykh : And beware of that.

The questioner : We did not speak to you except that we benefited from something.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good. How are you?

The questioner : By Allah, I am well, O Shaykh.