Around two months ago here in Germany, when all the short-work (the government program to cover people who've been home or doing limited hours at work)....I kept wondering how this would play out with the church tax business and Covid-19 worries.
The system that the church tax works in Germany....if you 'volunteer' to accept the church tax, you contribute money to your 'brand' of church. If you live in Bavaria....the deduction is 8-percent of your take-home pay. In the rest of Germany, it's 9-percent. If you don't participate, then no tax but no church services allowed for you (like a funeral).
Well....the law handling this says that if you are on short-work status, your pay is covered by the government to around 65-percent (more or less). The law also says that NO church tax can be deducted while in short-work status.
I noticed today that NDR (NW German public TV) came up and had a brief discussion over this topic.
So just looking at the Hanover region of Germany and the Protestant Church system there....they are missing around 90-million Euro (a fairly big chunk of money).
The Bavarian church system? It's missing around 12-percent of what they would have had in 2019.
If Corona continues on into 2021? Well, no one says much and you have to wonder about the budget cuts coming, and how they (the churches) resolve the financial crisis approaching.
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