Tithe (Mormonism)

Tithing is a commandment accepted by various churches in the Latter Day Saint movement in which adherents make willing tithe donations, usually ten percent of their income, to their church. It is based on both the biblical practice of paying tithes and modern revelation given to Joseph Smith and his accepted successors. For many of these churches, the law of tithing replaced or supplemented the law of consecration. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) emphasized tithing in the 1900s and 1960s to assist in paying church debts.

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery made a covenant on November 29, 1834, in which they promised to give a tenth of all that they received to the poor in the church. However, during the early history of the Church of Christ, most Latter Day Saints understood the scriptural word "tithing" as any amount of consecrated goods or money. For example, in 1837, the Presiding Bishop Edward Partridge and his counselors defined "tithing" as two percent of a household's annual net worth.

While in Far West, Missouri, Smith received a revelation commanding his followers to build up a holy city Zion and construct another temple. Faced with the future financial burden that this commandment would create, Smith gathered several church leaders on July 8, 1838, and prayed to know how much property God required for tithing. The answer that Smith received is recorded in Doctrine and Covenants, which describes three types of tithing, including "all their surplus property", "all those who gather unto ... Zion shall be tithed", and "one tenth of all their interest annually."

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