Church taxes in europe

[SgtSchultz]

Originally Posted by Ms_Manners

I guess they are reluctant to put it on paper.

So do you think that means there's hope for these practical atheists/agnostics who can't quite bring themselves to formally and legally (even in complete anonymity) renounce their religion?

[Ms_Manners]

Originally Posted by SgtSchultz

So do you think that means there's hope for these practical atheists/agnostics who can't quite bring themselves to formally and legally (even in complete anonymity) renounce their religion?

I don't think so. Well, actually, yes, when they get old and start to fear, but not before. And not really, because they will start praying to try to save their souls, but they will completely miss all other aspects. I know, better than nothing, but still...

Catholicism is a tradition here, and "what will the neighbours say" attitude is very strong, and most people don't really believe that the census is anonymous, so just to be on the safe side...
But they all still complain about the tax money going to the Church.

[iloveangels]

Originally Posted by SgtSchultz

My understanding was that more people pay the tax than attend mass.

This is correct.

http://cara.georgetown.edu/CARAServi...ttendance.html

The numbers in the table are the % of Catholics in different countries that attend mass on a weekly basis, not the % of the general population.

In Germany a person gets signed up as a Catholic or Protestant (or whatever) when they get baptized and after that they are considered a member of that religion. When they are taxed, a % is taken out for the support of the religion that they are signed up for. In Germany, it's 8 or 9% of your income taxes that you donate, according to the estimates I'm seeing.

The law in Germany allows people to "opt out" of paying these Church taxes, but in order to do so the person has to "disaffiliate" with the Church. IN order to do this, you go to the local government offices and sign papers. There have been recent articles in the news about this.

There are similar systems in several countries in that geographical region. Austria and Switzerland have similar systems, and some of the Scandinavian countries also have a Church tax.

It's an old system and there has been controversy about it for a long time. The latest bit of controversy is just more of the same.

[mexolic]

In the 18th century, peasants were burdened by a heavy tax system and were required to tithe a tenth of their income to the Catholic Church prior to The French Revolution.