In Germany, it is called a modern miracle – every year hundreds of thousands of worshipers leave churches, at the same time, funds continue to flow into church coffers, writes Politico.
In 2025, about 660,000 members officially left German Catholic and Protestant churches. As a result, these people no longer pay the fee, which is automatically deducted from registered church members as part of their personal income tax. Despite the departure of people, Catholic and Protestant churches together took in about 12.5 billion euros, which is even slightly more than in 2024. The apparent miracle has a completely mundane reason: the combination of rising wages and Germany’s progressive tax system means that fewer church members pay a higher amount.
A spokesman for the Evangelical Church of Germany, which represents the country’s Protestant congregations, said that at first glance what is happening may seem paradoxical, but the reason is that church tax is calculated based on each person’s income tax.
Members of Catholic, Protestant and some Jewish congregations, regardless of whether they attend church or not, pay an additional church tax of 8-9% of their income tax. In 2021, around 29 million people in Germany paid church tax, which is almost half of the total number of taxpayers in Europe’s largest economy.
The German Finance Ministry’s 2025 payroll tax tables show that an
employee without children who earns around 50,000 euros a year will also pay an annual church tax of 600 euros
in addition to personal income tax. If a person’s income reaches 70,000 euros, the church tax can exceed 1,000 euros a year.
People are registered with their local parish church at birth or by applying to the municipality. To stop paying church tax, one must formally leave the church in a process called “Kirchenaustritt” (leaving the church). The procedure varies from state to state, but usually involves appearing in person at the parish office or local court and submitting a declaration of withdrawal. In most states, a fee must also be paid.
Those who have left the church can still attend services and use some church services, but cannot marry in the church, become godparents or be buried in a church ceremony. In 2025, around 310,000 people left Catholic parishes, while 350,000 members left Protestant parishes.
The reasons vary, from feeling disconnected from the church to simply wanting to save money. Matthias Kopp, communications director for the German Bishops’ Conference, said people are leaving the church because it no longer plays a role in their lives. In addition, scandals in recent years have also had an impact, which has undermined trust in churches, and there are also people who are leaving the church because of taxes, but this is certainly not the primary reason. Kopp added that these are processes of alienation that the church should respond to.
For 33-year-old Berlin accountant Jana Keil, the decision was both financial and moral.
She said she did not want to continue to support a system related to child sex crimes with taxes.
The increase in income despite the church members leaving can be explained by the fact that the highest-earning parishioners remain in the churches. Zareh Asatryan, a professor of empirical economics at the University of Münster, said that church tax payers are those with higher incomes. Consequently, the tax that goes to church coffers is also higher.
However, the question remains as to how long incomes will continue to grow. Asatryan said that although profits are growing, the process is very slow, and the increase is not significant. A representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany said that long-term forecasts show a significant decline in church tax income in the coming decades. Protestant churches are already preparing for a decline in income with long-term planning, but without the tax system, the religious, social and charitable work of the church would not be possible at its current level.
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