Church tax in Germany: What it Costs and How to Stop Paying it

Kirchensteuer is a tax levied on members of recognised religious communities, principally the Catholic and Protestant churches, and collected by the state tax authority through the payroll system. The churches pay the state a collection fee for the service.

It is charged at 9% of your assessed income tax in most federal states, and 8% in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Note carefully what the percentage applies to: it is a surcharge on the tax bill, not on income.

What it costs

Income tax figures for a single employee in Steuerklasse I on 2026 rates, as calculated by the Germany calculator.

At 70,000 euros the cost is roughly 98 euros a month, which is not trivial but is smaller than most people assume. The proportion of gross salary is around 1.7%, and it falls as a share of income for anyone whose income tax bill is reduced by children or by joint assessment.

Church tax is itself deductible as a special expense in the annual return, which recovers part of it at the marginal rate. The effective cost is therefore lower than the headline figure by roughly a third for a higher rate taxpayer.

How you came to be paying it

Membership generally follows from baptism, recorded at the time and carried forward. When you register your address in Germany, the Anmeldung form asks for religious affiliation, and answering the question with a recognised denomination places you on the register.

Foreign nationals are frequently caught by this without intending to be. Someone baptised as a child in Ireland, Poland, Italy or Brazil who writes their denomination on the registration form has, from the tax authority's point of view, declared membership of the corresponding German church. The deduction then appears on the payslip without further correspondence.

Leaving the answer blank, or entering that you belong to no denomination, produces no church tax. This is not evasion; it is a factual declaration and it is yours to make.

Leaving the church

The formal process, Kirchenaustritt, is a declaration made to a civil authority rather than to the church itself. Depending on the federal state it is made at the Standesamt or the Amtsgericht.

1. Book an appointment at the responsible office for your district. Waiting times vary from days to several weeks.
2. Attend in person with a passport or identity card, and a marriage certificate if your name has changed.
3. Sign the declaration and pay the administrative fee, typically between 10 and 60 euros depending on the state. Bremen and Brandenburg charge nothing.
4. Keep the certificate. It is the document that proves the date.

The tax stops from the end of the month in which the declaration is made, or the following month in some states. It is not retrospective, so leaving in December saves almost nothing for that year while leaving in January saves nearly all of it.

What leaving actually costs you

The consequences are real, if narrow. Leaving means:

• No church wedding, baptism or funeral as a member. Practice varies by parish and by denomination, and exceptions are sometimes made, but the formal position is clear.
• No godparent role in a Catholic baptism.
• Employment consequences in church-run institutions. This is the significant one. The Catholic and Protestant churches together are among Germany's largest employers, running hospitals, care homes, kindergartens and schools through Caritas and Diakonie. Membership can be a condition of employment in some roles.
• Rejoining is possible but involves a formal process with the church rather than a form at the town hall.

Where else this exists

Germany is not alone, though its version is the most consequential.

Finland charges a church tax of roughly 1% to 2% of taxable income for members of the Evangelical Lutheran and Orthodox churches, and it is charged on income rather than on tax. Denmark charges kirkeskat at around 0.65% of taxable income for members of the Folkekirken, again on income directly. Sweden ended its state church arrangement in 2000 but still collects a members' fee through the tax system. Austria takes a different route entirely, with the church billing members directly rather than through payroll.

None of these appears in the standard take-home figures on this site, which are calculated without church tax throughout. Where it applies, subtract it separately from the figures in the German take-home breakdown or in the Danish tax guide.

The practical advice

Decide before you register, not afterwards. Changing the entry later requires the full Kirchenaustritt process, while getting it right at the Anmeldung costs nothing and takes no time. For anyone arriving in Germany without an active religious practice, this is the single easiest deduction on the entire payslip to avoid, and it is also the one most commonly incurred by accident.