... the heck kind of distorted lenses are you reading the bible from? It's very clear that the infraction was lying with a side-helping of greed. They didn't have to give any of their money; the issue was they were bragging about giving it all while in reality keeping some. I mean, once they committed to donating a certain amount, sure they owed it, but that wasn't a requirement at all.

On the other hand, the taxes they paid to the Roman government were mandatory, and Christ set a precedent of paying those, or, at least, not using those taxes as an excuse to not do right. Or not using a literal interpretation of the old testament as an excuse to not pay your taxes, etc. (The pharisees, etc.)