Germany: of tax, church and salvation
By DOREEN NAWA
IT is eight to nine percent for ‘salvation’ in Germany and it is both
legal and official. As long as someone earns enough to sustain a life,
then the person is obliged to pay eight to nine percent of their monthly
income to their church as church tax.It all starts when any Christian like the Lutherans, Protestants, Catholics get a new job. A form is signed to state which religion the new employee belongs to and this is not just for records’ sake.
It is done to give Government a leeway to deduct the eight to nine percent of the monthly salary. This deduction is later given to the church at the end of the year for various charitable projects.
This church tax is not only in Germany but other European countries and has helped Europe maintain its status of no vulnerable people on the streets like is the situation in Zambia.
“One of the legal requirements when you are given a new job is to state your religion and this is done for both company records and for the government for church tax purposes. I have been paying tax for the past three decades. I think and I do that because I am a Christian, I am a protestant,” said Nea Matzen, a German journalist and editor at Die Tagesschau in Hamburg, Germany.
Ms Matzen said she feels obliged to contribute to the work that Christians are doing in Germany.
She said there are underprivileged people in Germany and this is why the churches are involved in looking after them.
“This is the reason why I contribute and I do not think of withdrawing from the church just because of this tax. We have orphans and the aged who are taken care of by the church despite their religious affiliations through the monies we pay,” she said.
To a few Germans, this is a good idea because the church is involved in numerous charitable works that need funding but to some, it is not.
According to Ms Matzen, the idea of church tax has contributed to dozens of people leaving the church for more money in their pockets. The best option to lower tax for Germans is by leaving the church.
The idea of paying church tax has shaken the church and seems to be contributing to large numbers of people being non- religious.
Whoever leaves the church is freed from this and no longer has to pay, but also no longer belongs to the church.
However, the church tax is looked at as a good move in Zambia if one considers the ever increasing number of the vulnerable on the streets.
Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) general secretary Suzanna Matale says that because tithe is voluntary, the church tax is a good move in financing the various projects that churches undertake in various countries worldwide.
“The idea of church tax is good because it helps the church to have funds to finance various projects it is involved in,” Reverend Matale said.
In Germany, Protestant and Catholic churches are denominations and legal statutory bodies. In the latter capacity, the churches have tax-raising powers. The state collects the tax and passes it on to the churches, receiving a payment for this service. The sole way of avoiding church tax is formally to leave one’s church.
According to information on the German Portal, Christianity is the largest religion in Germany with 67.07 percent of the population as of 2007.
The percentage is, however, slowly going down due to a significant number of adherents leaving the church. The second largest religion is Islam with four percent of the country’s population followed by Buddhism and Judaism.
During the last few decades, the two largest churches in Germany, Catholic and Protestant, have lost a significant number of adherents. The two religions are down to roughly 30 percent by the end of 2010.
One of the churches that are facing a noticeable withdrawal of membership is Catholic Church. It is facing a significant wave of members renouncing their official registration as Catholics.
Their departures are diminishing the institution’s significant coffers, long fed by taxes collected and allocated by the German state based on denominations’ registered numbers.
Many practising Catholics favour leaving the system intact because it pays the salaries of thousands of church employees and contributes to the work of aid agencies such as Caritas. Church authorities, of course, argue that abolishing the tax would “lead to further secularisation”.
According to Claus Hesseling, a German Catholic, the departures of hundreds of Catholics from the church have affected most charity work that the church is involved in.
“The money I pay goes to helping someone in need of a shirt, food or shelter, but lately there has been a noticeable loss of members in the Catholic Church within German. I read somewhere that over 300 Catholics a day are being “excommunicated” after they register their departures,” Mr Hesseling said.
The total deductions made from employees as church tax are worth about 5.6 billion euros annually.
A national debate has started in Germany about the legitimacy of the Church tax, which is levied on all those registered with the Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant and Old Catholic churches.
The debate follows a controversy of some who no longer wish to pay the additional eight or nine per cent tax, but also want to remain members of their respective churches.
Under the current system, a Christian who wants to opt out of paying the tax has to sign a form at the local town hall stating their intention to “leave the public body of the church”. When one does this it is as good as excommunicating themselves.
The church tax system does not leave out the foreigners working in Germany. Expatriates living in Germany can be subject to German taxes, especially if they have German source income.
According to Joshua Ewulo, a Nigerian doctor at Elisabeth Hospital in Berlin, the German tax system is similar to the structures in other Western countries.
“You pay income taxes throughout the year, usually with an employer deducting tax from each paycheck. Adjustments are then made at the end of the year for possible under- or over-payments. I wish they (Government and the church) can consider the consequences of people leaving the church,” Dr Ewulo said.
He said that eight to nine percent is just too much because it is not the only deduction made to one’s monthly income. In Germany even singles and couples pay tax. The deduction from one’s income is up to 45 percent, which is also too much.
Despite the controversy that surrounds the church tax in Germany, clergymen in Zambia look at it as a good move that can help finance charitable projects that churches are doing.
Independent Churches of Zambia board chairperson David Masupa says the church tax is a good idea and should be emulated.
“The idea of church tax is good and it can help us take care of the vulnerable that are all over our streets. Like the tax that Zambia Revenue Authority collects, it would be good if a separate account is created for tax collected from any building that is rented by the church organisation and later given back to the church,” Reverend Masupa said.
Despite the controversy surrounding the church tax in Germany and the rest of Europe, the church tax has helped take care of the vulnerable like the aged and the orphans.
The benefits are clear from the non-availability of vulnerable children on the streets in Germany and Europe as a whole.
No comments:
Post a Comment