Are German JWs about to get hit with a tax bill?

by Mickey mouse 6 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Mickey mouse

  Please read the text at this link.

  Religion and State are separate, although historically a special partnership exists between the State and those religious communities that have the status of a "corporation under public law." If they fulfill certain requirements, including assurance of permanence and size of the organization, and do not demonstrate disloyalty to the State, religious organizations may request "public law corporation" (PLC) status, which, among other things, entitles them to levy taxes on their members, which the State then collects as part of the overall taxes. Organizations pay a fee to the government for this service, and not all PLCs availed themselves of this privilege. The decision to grant PLC status is made at the state level, and there have been cases where states have denied this status to an applicant. For example, to date, only the State of Berlin has granted the Jehovah's Witnesses PLC status.
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  Mickey mouse

  BTTT!
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  Goshawk

  So they are doing away with the donation box and taking it out of their wages directly?
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  Mrs. Fiorini

  This is amazing. Please explain more. Is this voluntary or mandatory?
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  Mrs. Fiorini

  By the way, wouldn't some of the WT doctrines qualify as disloyalty to the state? They claim to represent "God's Kingdom" which will soon destroy all governments, including Germay's.
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  TheOldHippie

  They are NOT going to collect tax from each member. The major churches in Germany do that, as they also do in countries like Denmark, where those not being members of the State Church pay 0.7 % less taxes than others. In other countries, such as mine, the various denominations and churches are paid back from the State an amount per head, per member, corresponding to the amount the State spends on the State Church. If the State Church's part of the national budget is 1 %, and that per State Church member means 50$, then the non-State Churches or denominations each receive 50$ per member. In Germany, however, this means that the JW organization can be granted tax freedom for property and other things, that they can freely visit people in hospitals and homes for the elderly without having to apply for it and being rejected, and that they if they so choose can run care centres. They CAN collect taxes like the other churches do, if they want to, but they have publicly stated they do NOT intend to collect taxes, as gifts have been, are, and shall remain voluntary. But it is tax exemption for the organization coupled with the possibility of visiting schools, care homes etc. which is the driving force, apart from the recongnition which lies in the term of being a recognised church.
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  dozy

  In broader terms , I am convinced that sooner or later the incredibly generous system of tax reliefs for charities that exists in many countries will have to be pegged back. In the UK , direct tax reliefs have grown to over 3 billion GBP http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/charities/table10-2.pdf

  The system was never designed for such a huge transfer of funds from the taxpayer to often undeserving and even fraudulent organisations. The exploiting of the system by violent animal rights groups and extremist Islamic groups , among others , has led to many question why the taxpayer should fund these groups. While this may have been acceptable during boom times , I am sure that governments worldwide must be examining whether this system is viable when government deficits are rocketing.