Church tax in Germany: the box you ticked without noticing

It's a tax, not a donation

In Germany, membership of certain religious communities comes with a legally enforced tax, collected by the state's tax authorities alongside your income tax and passed to the church. This surprises people from countries where church giving is voluntary. The key facts:

• It applies to members of tax-collecting religious communities - principally the Roman Catholic Church (römisch-katholisch, "rk") and the Protestant/Evangelical Church (evangelisch, "ev"), plus some Jewish communities and a few others. Many faiths (most Muslim, Orthodox, free-church, and non-registered communities) don't levy it.
• If you're a member, it's not optional to skip while remaining a member - the Finanzamt withholds it automatically. The only way to stop it is to formally leave the church (Kirchenaustritt).
• If you're not a member - never joined, or already left - you pay nothing, and the Konfession line on your payslip shows "--" or blank.

How much it actually costs

Church tax is a percentage of your income tax, not of your salary - so it scales with what you already pay in tax:

Worked sense of scale: if your annual income tax is €6,000, church tax adds €480 (8%) or €540 (9%) on top. On a typical mid-salary that's roughly €30-60 per month quietly leaving your payslip. Over a career it's a substantial sum - which is why the leave-or-stay decision is worth making deliberately, not by inertia.

Some states also apply a Kappung (capping) that limits church tax for very high earners to a percentage of taxable income rather than of income tax - relevant only at high incomes, and it varies by state and church.

How you got signed up (probably the Anmeldung)

Most expats never consciously decide to pay church tax - they trigger it on the Anmeldung form (address registration). Buried in it is a Konfession / Religion field. Declare a tax-collecting denomination there and the Meldebehörde passes it straight to the tax office as part of your electronic payroll data (ELStAM), and the deduction begins automatically once you have taxable income. There is no separate opt-in and no warning.

This is the single most common church-tax mistake: writing "Catholic" or "Protestant" out of cultural habit or a sense of honesty, in a country where that answer is a financial declaration, not a census question. If church membership isn't tax-linked where you're from, it's easy to walk into. See Anmeldung in Germany for the form in context.

If you genuinely aren't a church member, leave the field blank or write "keine"/"ohne" (none) - that's accurate and stops any deduction. If you are a member and want to remain one, declaring it is correct and the tax follows.

Church tax on your investments too

It's not just your salary. If you hold investments, church tax also applies to capital gains tax (Kapitalertragsteuer / Abgeltungsteuer) (§51a EStG). On investment income:

• The flat capital-gains tax is 25% (plus Soli where applicable).
• Church members pay an additional 8% or 9% of that 25%, pushing the effective rate on investment income to roughly 27.8-27.9%.
• Banks query the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) once a year for your church-tax status and withhold automatically - so leaving the church lowers your investment tax too. (You can file a Sperrvermerk to block the automatic query, but you'd then declare it yourself.)

The interfaith-marriage surprise: besonderes Kirchgeld

A trap that blindsides mixed-faith couples: if one spouse is a church member and the other isn't (a "glaubensverschiedene Ehe"), and the church member earns little or nothing while the non-member earns well, the church can levy a besonderes Kirchgeld (special church fee) - even though the member has little income of their own.

• It kicks in when the church member earns less than ~35% of the household income (or nothing), and is assessed on roughly one-third of the couple's joint taxable income.
• The tables typically start at around €50,000 of joint taxable income (from the 2025 tax year), rising in bands.
• It's charged via the joint tax return and surprises couples who assumed a non-earning member owes no church tax.

The fix is the same as any church tax: the member spouse leaves the church (Kirchenaustritt, below) - only the church member can end it, and doing so stops the besonderes Kirchgeld going forward. Worth modelling before you file jointly if one of you is a church member married to a higher-earning non-member.

Leaving: the Kirchenaustritt

You can leave the church at any time. It's a civil act (declaring exit from the tax-collecting body), separate from your personal faith, done at a state office - not at the church itself:

1. Where: depending on the Bundesland, at the Standesamt (registry office) or the Amtsgericht (local court). Many cities let you book the appointment online.
2. Bring: your passport/ID, and often your Anmeldebestätigung and marriage certificate if applicable.
3. Cost: a one-off administrative fee, which varies by state - roughly €0 to €60. Some states (e.g. Brandenburg and the Saxon states) charge nothing; most others charge around €25-35.
4. Effect: you receive a Kirchenaustrittsbescheinigung (certificate). The office notifies the tax authorities, and church-tax withholding stops - typically from the month after you leave (the exact cut-off can depend on the state).

Confirm the exact current fee and responsible office for your specific city before booking - fees are set at state level and occasionally change; the Verbraucherzentrale and your city's Standesamt page have the current figure.

When it actually stops: the deduction ends effective the month of (or the month after) your Kirchenaustritt, depending on the state - so leave promptly rather than at year-end if you want to stop paying. Payroll updates once your Konfession flag clears in the ELStAM data; check your next payslip shows "--" for Konfession.

Consequences to weigh before leaving: you generally forgo church rites (church weddings, being a godparent, a church funeral) and church-run employment can be affected. For most expats with no church involvement, none of this bites - but decide with eyes open. Rejoining later is possible (a Wiedereintritt at the church) but restarts the tax - so it's a real decision, not a costless one.

High earners - the Kappung angle: a handful of states cap church tax for very high incomes at a percentage of taxable income (Kappung der Kirchensteuer) rather than the flat 8-9% of income tax - but it's usually not automatic and must be applied for at the church tax office. Only relevant at high incomes.

Getting overpaid church tax back

If church tax was wrongly withheld - you'd already left, or were never actually a member - it's refunded via your income tax return (see The German tax return). Church tax you did legitimately pay is also deductible as a special expense (Sonderausgabe) on that return, softening its net cost. So even members recoup part of it at year-end.

Frequently asked questions