It doesn’t to me, as that means you’re buying sacraments, which are necessary to enter heaven. Those are not for man to sell. This same sort of thing is why the Reformation happened. You cannot sell salvation.
This is, to me, almost as bad as the pedophile stuff.
You don’t have to show a club card if you enter a church. If you absolutely want to freeroll, you can do that.
This recent thing was about people who wanted to deliberately piss off the Catholic Church by renouncing their membership and then being a drama queen if there are consequences.
The poor and the needy don’t have to pay Church tax anyway. And Catholic hospitals treat Catholics, Protestants. Muslims and atheists alike.
What if you belong to a tiny church (or a big one not on the list)? “Protestant” covers a lot of territory, and there are now quite a few Muslims in Germany. Can a church register for church tax?
Also, if I didn’t miss this, are there other countries to collect church taxes? I think Switzerland does.
No ,its really not. Because no one will ever be able to police who goes up for communion on an ordinary Sunday or who goes to confession.The only enforcement could possibly be for the sacraments that require prior arrangement and preparation- Baptism, confirmation, marriage and perhaps *first *communion. If a person is truly not affiliated with the Catholic church , why would they want those sacraments for themselves or their children? And if they actually are Catholic and do want those sacraments why shouldn’t they financially support the Church? It’s one thing to be unable to contribute- it’s quite another to decide that you’d rather spend the money on yourself.
And really, I suspect the main difference between the situation in Germany and what happens in most other places is the fact that the government is involved. Need a wedding or funeral service- in my experience there is a fee to the church or officiant. Sign your kid up for religious education- usually a fee. Send your kid to the church run school- it’s not uncommon for members who contribute to get preference or a discount.
In Germany, the Church tax is only collected for the big mainstream Christian denominations, the Evangelical Church in Germany and the Catholic Church as well as for the Jewish community (plus some very small Christian Churches).
These organizations have, for historical reasons, always had a special legal status.
I looked it up on the website of the Catholic Church in Germany. It says that the person that renounced his Church membership may not:
receive the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, confirmation and the anointing of the sick, except in mortal danger
be a Godfather
hold a Church office
vote in Church elections
be married by the Church (special permission can be granted, though)
get a Church funeral (if he didn’t show some sign of repentance before his death)
(Concerning this last point, individual priests have often been forgiving, for instance when the relatives or the widow of a man who had renounced his Church membership asked for a Church funeral).
The Church obviously wouldn’t deny a baptism or a first communion to a child under any circumstances.
The thing about Muslims is that, unlike the German Catholic Church and the German Lutheran Church (I personally would avoid the word Evangelical, even though it’s the German word, since the German Lutheran Church has absolutely zilch to do with “Evangelicals” and their ilk), they don’t have a central governing body to represent them to the government. This creates a problem with religious education in public schools (sound of American heads blowing) as there is no accountable Muslim body for the curriculum and the education of the teachers. Smaller protestant or orthodox denominations also don’t go through the state church tax system and collect their tithes another way, like American churches.
This is probably a waste of time, but cite? Any evidence at all for this? Sounds like you’re freaked out because reality is conflicting with your mythical migration hypothesis.
“Evangelical Church in Germany” (EKD in German) is actually the official translation according to their website: Home – EKD
The EKD itself is really an umbrella organization: http://www.ekd.de/english/about_ekd.html which comprises Lutheran, Reformed and so called United member Churches. It’s a mixed bag, but they are by and large mainstream and “liberal”.
There is also a more conservative and much smaller Independant Lutheran Church which isn’t a member of the EKD and therefore doesn’t receive Church tax. This Independant Lutheran Church is a partner of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in the United States.
There is maybe some confusion with the term “evangelical” (German: evangelikal) which usually refers to a more conservative, “born again Christian” type of Protestantism. But this is not what the Evangelical Church in Germany is about; it’s probably not a well chosen translation.
Actually, “evangelical” in American English can be used in a couple of different senses. There is of course the sense that refers to the more conservative, born-again Christian type , but the older sense is that of spreading the Gospel as in St John the Evangelist, or the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Most of the Germans I knew had long since opted out of paying these taxes.
I learned about it the hard way - after I got my first check.
I thought it was odd when the employer asked my religion - I was never religious (and now even less so!) but had been raised in a Catholic family (although they too were not exactly hard core Catholics) so I stupidly said, “Catholic”.
When I saw that deduction I had a fit and immediately had it changed. I was told I was going to be more or less excommunicated. I partially didn’t care, but wrote a note that said, “tell that to the US Catholic church…” and never heard back from them.
Funnier was the guy who worked with me - another American - who said he was Buddhist. They had him pay taxes for the Evangelicals - as they said were the closest to his religion compared to the Catholics. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy either and quickly opted out.
But yeah, I can say the vast majority of Germans I met did not pay any church taxes and quickly opted out when they got their first job.
I wouldn’t subscribe to that. The mainstream Churches in Germany are still rather big (Evangelical Church 24.5 million, Catholic Church about 25 million). And given the Church tax, these are people who (more or less) decided not to bail out. That being said, Germany is nevertheless a very secular country.
It’s not the employer’s job to investigate his employee’s religious affiliation. That information is to be found on the Lohnsteuerkarte (tax card). If your Buddhist friend did indeed pay Church tax for the Evangelical Church, something went seriously wrong. Maybe a case of bad Karma… 
I believe our employer was filling out those Lohnsteuerkarten for us, hence the question.
As I said, the vast majority of people I knew (in Berlin) did not pay any church taxes, but then again, back then I didn’t exactly hang around the average German family.
The Lohnsteuerkarte as such was (they somewhat changed the system) issued by the civil registry office (a branch of the city administration). They provided the information whether you are married, number of children and religious affiliation. That’s the information which is needed to calculate the payroll tax (including the Church tax).
And you’re right, Berlin is pretty much a godless city 
That’s not true here in America.
There were quite a few incidents a while ago of priests refusing communion at the altar rail to people who were wearing a rainbow ribbon to indicate support fot GLBT catholics.
There were reports a few years ago of bishops instructing the priests in their dioceses to refuse communion to Sen. Ted Kennedy, when he was in the town for a political event, because of his support for abortion rights. Currently, some argue for the same refusal to VP Joe Biden, also for his support of abortion rights (and now, equal marriage rights).
Here in Minnesota, we currently have a battle going about a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage. (This almost completely funded by the Catholic Church.) So we are starting to hear stories of local incidents. The bishop has sent a letter to all the priests, ordering them to be silent if they disagree with this amendment. Parochial schools have had their students carry letters home, asking parents to donate money in support of this amendment. There have been reports of parishes where people with “Vote No” buttons (or “Another Catholic voting No” ones) were refused Communion. Even some reports that people not wearing anything in church, but known to have lawn signs at their house or otherwise opposing this amendment are being confronted at their church on Sundays (but not actually refused the sacraments).
So here in America, there are incidents where catholics who disagree with some church positions are refused the sacraments.
Of course they’re going to be able to police famous people who publicize the fact that they do not pay church taxes. And they’ll be able to police people who wear buttons saying they don’t pay church taxes. But even now, there are many, many Catholics in America who receive Communion each Sunday while disagreeing with the Church on birth control, gay rights,etc.
I’m not saying they wouldn’t like to refuse Communion and confession to those who don’t pay Church taxes - I’m saying they won’t be able to because the person distributing Communion won’t have any way to know if the person standing before them pays the tax, just started paying the tax, is visiting from a different city and pays the tax there , etc even if he memorized the list and recognizes those who paid in that town.
Not quite the same, but in Spain anybody filing income tax has the choice between “RCC” and “Other charities”; the appropriate Treasury has to give a % of their income to either RCC-affiliated or non-RCC-affiliated non-profits, divided according to how many people chose each option. This is not a specific amount from each individual’s taxes - if the ticks go 50:50, then so does the budget, regardless of whether the people who went one way had higher taxes than those who went the other way. The tick of someone whose income has been so low that he’s filing in order to get all his withdrawals returned counts the same as the tick from Emilio Botín.
It’s not considered a matter of religious affiliation, though, there’s people who are practicing Catholics but tick “others” (one that comes to mind says she already gives to specific RCC charities directly, can’t be arsed look for worthy non-affiliated ones, delegates this search on the government) and people who are not and tick RCC (one I know says that he doesn’t believe in God but does believe in Cáritas).