Germany’s outrageous Church Tax under pressure

28.08.09, NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY (UK). A national debate has started in Germany about the legitimacy of the Church tax that is levied on all those registered with the Catholic, Lutheran and Old Catholic churches. The controversy follows a ruling by a court in the Freiburg administrative area in favour of a canon lawyer, Hartmut Zapp, who no longer wishes to pay the additional eight or nine per cent tax, but he also wants to remain a member of the Catholic Church.