Editor in chief at IamExpat Media
As record numbers of people resign their membership in Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany, a new survey has found that the majority of people in the federal republic want to see the church tax (Kirchensteuer) abolished.
It often comes as a surprise to newly-arrived expats that state-recognised churches in Germany can collect taxes from their members - up to 9 percent of the income tax you pay on your salary in some areas - but it’s not just expats that are sometimes unhappy about the current system.
According to a new representative survey conducted by the polling institute Insa on behalf of Bild, 67 percent of Germans are in favour of abolishing the tax, which in 2021 saw the Catholic Church take in around 6,7 billion euros in Germany, while the Protestant Church took 6 billion euros. 55 percent of survey respondents said they were instead in favour of a system in which every taxpayer gives a portion of their income to a self-chosen good cause.
Churches in Germany are currently undergoing something of a crisis, as year after year sees record numbers of people hanging up their memberships. According to documents from the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), 359.000 Catholics left the church in 2021, a big jump from the 221.390 who left in 2020. For the first time ever in 2021, less than half of Germans were church members, down from 61 percent 15 years ago.
The mass exodus has been attributed to a number of factors: not only the increasing secularisation of society and decline in church attendance rates during the coronavirus pandemic, but also the recent high-profile scandals of child abuse and subsequent cover-ups within the church.
At a time of soaring inflation and a growing cost of living crisis, it has also been suggested that for many people the church subscription rates are becoming an unsustainable expense for many families and individuals.