I wonder if I can use this strategy to stop paying the church tax in Germany.
I was baptised Catholic but never practiced. But since the catholic church is internationally integrated I gotta pay the tax perpetually unless I get excommunicated.
I had never heard of this before[1] (as a sheltered obtuse American) - this seems like exactly the sort of thing that the US separation of church and state was established for. It looks like the church can opt you into their fold using deceptive dark practices - if this were the US, it would be like if registering with ancestry.com opted you into mandatory Mormon tithes[2].
In Germany's case it's only the Catholic Church that does this shady stuff. It should have been like other churches, that only charge you if you frequent them in Germany. But the Catholic Lobby is strong, so if you have a register of baptism in Papua New Guine they will chase you and charge back taxes, even if your parents left the church, forgot to tell you about baptism, and were adopted by a family of another religion. Ooops.
Protestants and members of other religions don't really have to pay unless they're a member of a church in German, but since the Catholic Church is centralized, everyone who was baptized has to pay. Yeah it sucks.
Too much bureaucracy and I have to go back to my country for it, even to the same city/parish, apparently. And they might take their time and just "deny" it! It needs the approval of a Bishop or something like that.
I'm considering other avenues. Someone mentioned I can also be excommunicated if I punch the pope, but so far I'm trying to avoid violent solutions.
That’s not true. You sign a form where you write where you were baptized, if you remember, and that’s it. You have to pay for the privilege of exiting, however, although it was your parents who signed you up. Absolutely insanity.
Comments
I wonder if I can use this strategy to stop paying the church tax in Germany.
I was baptised Catholic but never practiced. But since the catholic church is internationally integrated I gotta pay the tax perpetually unless I get excommunicated.
I had never heard of this before[1] (as a sheltered obtuse American) - this seems like exactly the sort of thing that the US separation of church and state was established for. It looks like the church can opt you into their fold using deceptive dark practices - if this were the US, it would be like if registering with ancestry.com opted you into mandatory Mormon tithes[2].
[1] https://allaboutberlin.com/glossary/Kirchensteuer [2] https://www.pbs.org/mormons/etc/genealogy.html
In Germany's case it's only the Catholic Church that does this shady stuff. It should have been like other churches, that only charge you if you frequent them in Germany. But the Catholic Lobby is strong, so if you have a register of baptism in Papua New Guine they will chase you and charge back taxes, even if your parents left the church, forgot to tell you about baptism, and were adopted by a family of another religion. Ooops.
You need to pay an enforced tax? Is it levied by the government on behalf of the church or is there official papal taxmen?
Seems like you should try to speed run excommunication. After all, there's a lot of fun ways to sin in the eyes of god.
It is paid on the salary. You have to declare yourself that you're part of a religion, though.
Excuse me, that what tax?
I know, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_tax
Protestants and members of other religions don't really have to pay unless they're a member of a church in German, but since the Catholic Church is centralized, everyone who was baptized has to pay. Yeah it sucks.
Why haven't you left yet? Obvious scam is obvious
Too much bureaucracy and I have to go back to my country for it, even to the same city/parish, apparently. And they might take their time and just "deny" it! It needs the approval of a Bishop or something like that.
I'm considering other avenues. Someone mentioned I can also be excommunicated if I punch the pope, but so far I'm trying to avoid violent solutions.
That’s not true. You sign a form where you write where you were baptized, if you remember, and that’s it. You have to pay for the privilege of exiting, however, although it was your parents who signed you up. Absolutely insanity.
Not the information given to me at a parish, but you’re probably right.
That's often true for citizenship too