I'm a simple emigrant and I don't pay church tax

A long time ago, when Napoleon was reorganizing Europe, the German churches taken away a large part of their property. It went to local princes as compensation for the lands they had given to France. In return, the authorities promised to help the churches with state payments. But then they quickly realized that it would be good to shift this burden, so to speak, onto the end consumer. And over the following years, acre by acre they quietly transferred this obligation onto the parishioners. Thus the church tax appeared. But not every church can receive this tax. It is available only to officially recognized religious “public-law” organizations, to whom such a right has been granted. Currently this is mainly the Catholic and Evangelical churches, as well as some Jewish communities. Nevertheless, in 2024 it was collected 12.6 billion euros. But not all of the taxpayers did this knowingly. Usually there are two ways to accidentally sign up for the church tax: one for foreigners and the second for locals. The registration office, where we go for our residence registration, asks foreigners about their religious affiliation. And those, unsuspecting, name it. But they do not know that sometimes by answering the question they become officially registered members of a religious community and effectively commit themselves to supporting the church. Locals, on the other hand, are most often simply baptized by their parents. By registering thus a new member of the community, at some point they too start paying the tax. This becomes apparent later, when a person unexpectedly sees on their payslip that they are giving away another 8-9% of the income tax every month for some reason. That is, with a salary of 50,000 euros a year, they pay about 50 euros of church tax per month. And this misled contributor realizes where they went wrong, rushes to unsubscribe from the tax immediately in a fit of emotion, because they were never in the church and did not plan to be! But not so simple after all. Leaving the community, although straightforward, has a snag: it is possible only through an application to the local court and payment of about €30. And, as is known, by the time you wait for your appointment, the dust will have settled and the church will have accumulated more money from you. And in the best case you won’t even catch the deadline, forget about it, and continue paying the subscription to the faith. For those who fret and somehow consider themselves part of one of these religions, but still want to refuse paying the tax, they should think carefully first. Here are some restrictions they will face. Baptisms, weddings, funeral services, confession, and communion — effectively become unavailable to them. The same goes for those who want to become a godparent or a witness at a wedding. And they will also not be able to work in religious schools, kindergartens, and hospitals. And finally: they won’t even be buried in a church cemetery! What do you think of such relations with the church? #money #Ordnung #taxes #history