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Introduction

Calculate your life-time church taxes

German church taxes are extremely high.

Only a small fraction goes to good causes.

Average life-time church tax More info €72,019 Share going to charitable causes. More info 5-8%

Church tax

How much the church collects while you:

Church revenue per second More info €383

Sleep one night 8 hours €11,050,228

Take the metro to work 40 minutes €1,035,959

Brush your teeth 3 minutes €69,064

Tie your shoes 3 seconds €1,152

Average taxes

How much are German church taxes, on average?

Church tax profile of the average 40-year old German income earner.

Per year More info €1,150 Tax payments per year Over your lifetime More info

€17,524 Already paid

€54,764 Yet to pay

Potential savings More info

€37,512 Savings missed

€312,238 Possible savings remaining

Find our assumptions here

Your taxes

Calculate your life time church taxes

Understand how much you are paying.

Calculator

Gross income (annually)

State

Your effective tax More info

Age (25-65)

Calculate

Calculator results Start over

Your annual church tax More info €0,000 Tax payments per year Over your 40 years More info

€0,000 Already paid

€0,000 Yet to pay

Potential savings More info

€0,000 Savings missed

€330,000 Possible savings remaining

Find our assumptions here

Church wealth

How rich is the church?

Break-down of revenues and total wealth of the church

Church tax /year €12 BILLION Tax collected 2017 (Source) Subsidies /year €549 MILLION Additional subsidies (Source) Total wealth €200 BILLION The church's wealth (Source)

Expenditure

How does the Church spend the money?

Break-down of the church’s estimated expenditure in Germany, 2019

Good causes (e.g via 'Diakonie') More info 5-8% Building maintenance & further costs 22-26% Salaries & pensions for priests/employees 63-66%

Church taxes in the EU

Today, church taxes are rare

Germany's are the world's highest.

Germany More info 2.5%-4%

Finland More info 1%-2%

Sweden More info 1%

Spain More info 0.7%

Austria

Italy

France 0%

Find out more

On church taxes

— ARD documentary about church taxes.

— FAZ piece on church tax.

— The Economist article on church taxes.

On leaving the church

— General info here

— RBB documentary on the church’s attempts to charge tax retroactively

On child abuse

— ZEIT piece on clerical child abuse

— SPIEGEL piece on clerical child abuse

— Deutschlandfunk piece on lack of progress in dealing with clerical child abuse

On effective giving

— Effective altruism – general info

— GiveWell NGO evaluation

Take action

Sign our petition

3 objectives

01. We ask the church to collect its own membership fees, not taxes, like any other club.

02. We ask for transparency in how the church spends the money it receives.

03. We need the opt-out system to end immediately.

Read petition

FAQs

If you have further questions, please email us at info@kirchekassiert.de.

What assumptions are used for the calculations?

For the rough church tax calculator we use your information about the reported gross salary, State and effective tax rate.

We assume that:

You work 40 years over your lifetime and start working at age 25
Your salary grows by 2% annually, i.e. like inflation in Germany

To calculate the value of your assets, we assume that you simply invest the amount you would pay to the church in the leading German stock exchange, the DAX, each year. On average, the DAX has yielded 7.4% per year over the past 28 years.

What is the purpose of this website?

Do you know how much you’re paying church taxes, over your life time? Not many people do. Do you know how the church spends the money? It’s almost impossible to know because the church is very opaque about its spending.

We have started a petition to request that the Church, like any other registered association/club in Germany, collects its membership fees itself, and not through a tax charged by the Government. We also want all other subsidies to the church to end. And we the Church to be transparent about its income, expenditures, and ownership of assets.

How can I leave the church to stop paying taxes?

To stop paying taxes, you need to leave the church. To do so, you actually need to show up at your local city office. You need to pay a fee of approx. 30 EUR and bring your ID. It’s an annoying step that hinders a lot of people but it’s well worth it.

Other websites, such as www.kirchenaustrittt.de, have helpful information on this, and can direct you to the closest office.