According to a study of abuse cases: Why do we actually pay church taxes?

class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>

In most cantons, church taxes are mandatory for anyone who is a member of a church recognized by the canton. Usually these are the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Reformed Church.

But how could it be otherwise in Switzerland: it differs from canton to canton. The cantons of Neuchâtel and Geneva do not levy any church taxes at all. In Vaud, the church’s tasks are financed by state contributions. Other cantons such as Zurich, Lucerne and Solothurn also levy church taxes for the Christian Catholic Church. Members of the Israelite religious community must pay church taxes in Basel-Stadt, Freiburg and St. Gallen. Unrecognized religious communities, on the other hand, are governed by private law and are financed by membership contributions.

Now things get really complicated. Because of course every canton does it differently. Yes, there are even different calculation systems within a canton, depending on the church.

General statements about the level of church taxes cannot therefore be made. It depends on the community you live in and your religious beliefs.

A few examples to illustrate this: A couple with two children and a taxable income of 80,000 francs, as Catholics in Zurich, pay 341 francs church tax per year. However, in Liestal BL it would only be 211 francs. In the town of Solothurn, the family would have to spend as much as 990 francs. In Aarau, on the other hand, it would be 603 francs, but as Reformed Christians you would only have to spend 586 francs.

The question is actually extremely controversial. In 20 of the 26 cantons, companies also have to pay church taxes, even if they do not belong to a church community. It may therefore happen that a shareholder who belongs to a church other than that recognized in the canton or is non-denominational, indirectly pays tax to a religious community of which he is not a member.

In the canton of Graubünden, for example, the church tax for companies introduced in 1959 was justified by the precarious financial situation of the regional churches and parishes. The tax revenues from natural persons could no longer cover the financial needs of the churches.

But unlike the Swiss, who are increasingly fed up with the church, they cannot exempt themselves from church tax obligations. The Federal Court has repeatedly confirmed that companies cannot rely on freedom of belief and conscience. They can’t even decide which of the regional churches gets their church tax.

Church corporate taxes are the most discussed source of funding for church life. In most cantons, recognized churches can now levy taxes on companies. Or they receive part of the income from the state corporate tax. Here too, the structure of the tax and the determination of the tax rate differs greatly per canton. The tax rate can range from 3 percent in Sitten US to 82.5 percent in Altdorf UR.

Neither the Catholic nor the Reformed regional church reports all income from cantons and communities. According to calculations by the Roman Catholic Central Conference (RKZ), tax revenues on the Catholic side from 2016 to 2021 amounted to an average of 782 million francs per year. For legal entities, this would have been an average of 172 million.

For comparison, according to a study commissioned by both regional churches, tax revenues on the Reformed side in 2017 amounted to approximately 630 million francs, while those of legal entities were around 130 million francs. However, due to the continued decline in membership numbers, income is declining year after year.

The applications are very different. The list varies from the renovation of the church tower to contributions to the third world. Here too, the differences between the cantons are large. While in the canton of Neuchâtel the church tax is used exclusively to pay the pastors and the communities are responsible for the operation and maintenance of the church buildings, in the canton of Bern the salaries of the pastors are financed through general taxes. However, most often the money goes to the usual tasks of the religious community, such as personnel and maintenance costs, pastoral care, social tasks, charitable purposes or contributions to higher-level churches.

Source:Blick