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Church tax
bossel Updated: 2004-02-20 09:56
Church tax in Germany is quite a complicated matter. In our Basic Law (similar to a constitution) is written that churches that are approved as K?rperschaft ?ffentlichen Rechts (not sure of translation, maybe public body or statutory corporation) have the right to tax their adherents. How this is put into practice depends on the federal states (which have Kulturhoheit ~ authority in cultural matters).
In most states the tax is 9%, in some it's 8%. Only the Evangelic & RC church have the right to levy the tax in all states, but in almost all states are also some smaller religious bodies which have that right: eg. in Bavaria the Old-Catholic Church & the Jewish Community.
The state only collects this money & gives it (minus a collection fee of 3-4%) to the churches. How the religious bodies use it is entirely up to them. Besides the church tax the state gives pretty much the same amount of money as a grant. Furthermore exist some other "taxes" churches are allowed to levy, but I think it's not necessary to elaborate here.
In most states it's fairly easy to leave a church in order to avoid the tax. In Hesse you may even leave only the "fiscal church" while staying in church as a denomination (don't know how that works, though).
BTW, to become a statutory corporation is not so easy. The Jeh ova's Wit nesses have tried to become one for quite a while & never made it.
Separation of church & state is also written in Basic Law, yet it's not 100% accomplished. This has traditional reasons (dating back to secularization in the 19th century) & political reasons: when the Law was written down parties could not agree on a compromise & therefore they adopted most of what was applied in the Weimar Republic.
Furthermore in Germany all public utility institutions or organizations have special rights & advantages, which of course apply to churches as well. But the last word is not yet spoken regarding church tax, I think even in the moment there is a law-suit against it pending at the constitutional court.
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