Should the state tax administration employ chaplains on a full-time basis? And not just one or two, but—as the data indicate—as many as thirteen clergymen per year, financed entirely with public money? We checked how much this unusual concern for the “spiritual well-being” of employees of the National Revenue Administration (KAS) costs. The amounts may come as a surprise.
Under an agreement concluded in 2017 between the Head of KAS and the Delegate of the Polish Episcopal Conference, chaplains were officially incorporated into the structures of the Customs and Tax Service. They are not volunteers or chaplains cooperating occasionally. They are full-fledged officers, employed by appointment, with a full package of salaries, allowances and benefits—just like any other officer of this service.
It is hard not to ask oneself: should a secular state really pay chaplains at an institution whose main task is collecting taxes and overseeing public finances?
The data show that in 2021, maintaining the chaplains cost the state budget over one million zlotys—exactly PLN 1,003,300. In 2022, it was already 1,193,200 zlotys, and in 2023—as much as 1,414,100 zlotys. And that covers only salaries and allowances. Other benefits must also be added—including business-trip expenses, which are likewise paid by the state. In 2023, these amounted to another more than PLN 100,000.
In total, over three years, we spent nearly 4 million zlotys from the state budget on KAS chaplains. All this to provide employees with so-called spiritual support as part of their official duties.
By the end of October 2024, the number of chaplains had fallen to seven—nearly half as many. The reason? Some of them submitted requests to be released from service. It seems that even those directly involved stopped seeing the point of their presence in this structure.
At a time when there is a shortage of money for treating children, psychiatry, teachers, local infrastructure and healthcare, spending over one million zlotys a year on chaplains in tax offices understandably provokes outrage. Spirituality and faith may be important matters, but their place does not necessarily have to be in the tax administration—especially at taxpayers’ expense.