Church taxes in Europe [ 788 ]

Church Taxes in European Countries

Germany

About 70% of church revenues come from church tax. This is about €8.5 billion (in 2002).

Article 137 of the Weimar Constitution of 1919 and article 140 of the German Basic Law of 1949 are the legal basis for this practice.

In Germany, on the basis of tax regulations passed by the communities and within the limits set by state laws, communities may either

• require the taxation authorities of the state to collect the fees from the members on the basis of income tax assessment (then, the authorities withhold a collection fee), or
• choose to collect the church tax themselves.

In the first case, membership in the community is entered onto a tax document (Lohnsteuerkarte) which employees must surrender to their employers for the purpose of withholding tax on paid income. If membership in a tax-collecting religious community is entered on the document, the employer must withhold church tax prepayments from the income of the employee in addition to other tax prepayments. In connection with the final annual income tax assessment, the state revenue authorities also finally assess the church tax owed. In the case of self-employed persons or of unemployed taxpayers, state revenue authorities collect prepayments on the church tax together with prepayments on the income tax.

If, however, religious communities choose to collect church tax themselves, they may demand that the tax authorities reveal taxation data of their members to calculate the contributions and prepayments owed. In particular, some smaller communities (e.g. the Jewish Community of Berlin) choose to collect taxes themselves to save collection fees the government would charge otherwise.

Collection of church tax may be used to cover any church-related expenses such as founding institutions and foundations or paying ministers.

The church tax is only paid by members of the respective church. People who are not member of a church tax-collecting denomination do not have to pay it. Members of a religious community under public law may formally declare their wish to leave the community to state (not religious) authorities. With such a declaration, the obligation to pay church taxes ends. Some communities refuse to administer marriages and burials of (former) members who had declared to leave it.

The money flow of state and churches is distinct at all levels of the procedures. The church tax is not meant to be a way for the state to directly support churches, but since expenses for church tax are fully deductible in fact such support occurs on a somewhat large scale.

The church tax is historically rooted in the pre-Christian Germanic custom where the chief of the tribe was directly responsible for the maintenance of priests and religious cults. During the Christianization of Western Europe, this custom was adopted by the Christian churches (Arian and Catholic) in the concept of "Eigenkirchen" (churches owned by the landlord) which stood in strong contrast to the central church organization of the Roman Catholic Church. Despite the resulting medieval conflict between emperor and pope, the concept of church maintenance by the ruler remained the accepted custom in most Western European countries. In Reformation times, the local princes in Germany became officially heads of the church in Protestant areas and were legally responsible for the maintenance of churches. Not until the 19th century were the finances of churches and state regulated to a point where the churches became financially independent. At this point the church tax was introduced to replace the state benefits the churches had obtained previously.

Taxpayers, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant or members of other tax-collecting communities, pay between 8% (in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) and 9% (in the rest of the country) of their income tax to the church or other community to which they belong.^[1]

For example, a single person earning 50,000 euros may pay an average income-tax of 20%, thus 10,000 euros. The church tax is then 8% (or 9%) of that 10,000 euros: 800 (or 900) euros.^[2]

Denmark

Main article: Church of Denmark

The members of Folkekirken pay a church tax, which varies between municipalities, but can be as large as 1.51%. The tax is generally in the vicinity of 1% of the taxable income. The tax doesn't cover the entire budget of the church. An additional 13% is paid by the government. This means even people who are not members of the church finance the church through taxes.^{[citation needed]}

Sweden

The members of Church of Sweden pay church tax, which varies between municipalities, but can be as much as 2%. Church and state are separated as of 2000, however the burial tax (begravningsavgift) is paid by everyone regardless of membership.

In a recent development, the Swedish government has agreed to continue collecting from individual taxpayers the annual payment that has always gone to the church. But now the tax will be an optional checkoff box on the tax return. The government will allocate the money collected to Catholic, Muslim, Jewish and other faiths as well as the Lutherans, with each taxpayer directing where his or her taxes should go. It is possible to leave the church with the help of a web page [1].

Austria

Church tax is compulsory^[vague] in Austria.^{[citation needed]}

Switzerland

There is no official state church in Switzerland. However, all the 26 cantons (states) financially support at least one of the three traditional denominations-- Roman Catholic, Old Catholic (in Switzerland Christ Catholic), or Evangelical Reformed --with funds collected through taxation. Each canton has its own regulations regarding the relationship between church and state. In some cantons, the church tax (up to 2.3%) is voluntary but in others an individual who chooses not to contribute to church tax may formally have to leave the church. In some cantons private companies are unable to avoid payment of the church tax.

Finland

All members of either the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Finnish Orthodox Church (the two state churches of Finland) pay an income-based church tax of between 1% and 2%, depending on the municipality. On average the tax is about 1,3%.

Formerly, to stop paying church tax, one had to formally leave the church by personally going to local register office and waiting during an allowance of time for reflection. This requirement has since been removed, and currently a written statement to the church suffices. It is also possible to leave the church via a web page [2]. However, if one is member of church when year begins, he/she must pay taxes for whole year.

Iceland

Taxpayers in Iceland are obligated to pay a congregation tax^[3] (Icelandic sóknargjöld) to the recognized religious organization of their choice. Those who do not belong to any recognized religious organization pay the same amount to the University of Iceland. The Church of Iceland receives governmental support beyond the congregation taxes paid by its members
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Greek Church : taxes on church hostile.[ 787 ]

Greek Orthodox bishop denounces new taxes on church as hostile

Greek Orthodox priests in Athens 31 Jan 2008/Yiorgos Karahalis

REUTERS,,Mar 17, 2010 12:36 EDT,,By Renee Maltezou

ATHENS – A senior cleric has accused Greece’s socialist government of being hostile to the Orthodox Church for imposing taxes on it as part of a drive to tame a budget crisis that has shaken global markets.

Greece, where about 90 percent of the 11 million-strong population are Christian Orthodox, will tax bequests and revenues from church property as it seeks to tackle a 300 billion euro ($409.9 billion) debt pile.

In a country where a bishop sits on the board of the biggest bank and the top cleric swears in the government, many on the streets of Athens felt the church should do its bit given the sacrifices they are making.

“It was about time the Church paid. It’s fair,” said Christina Alexiadou, 55, an accountant and frequent church-goer. “It can’t be that only ordinary people pay for everything.”

The Church of Greece, one of the country’s biggest owners of prime real estate, has until now been largely exempt from taxes even though the state pays priests’ salaries.

The government, which had announced earlier this month that the church would have to contribute to its budget drive, said late on Monday that church income from real estate holdings would be taxed at 20 percent.

Cash bequests will face a levy of 10 percent and property bequests a 5 percent charge.

“The 20 percent hits us right between the eyes,” Bishop Anthimos of Thessaloniki told public television on Tuesday. “This is a hostile stand, I don’t intend to hide it.”

Greek Orthodox priests and nun in Athens, 31 May 2000/Yiorgos Karahalis

Details of the measures come just two weeks before Easter, the Orthodox Church’s biggest festival of the year.

Polls show the majority of Greeks are ready to accept draconian austerity measures that include tax rises, pension freezes and lower pay for public sector workers.

“The church is wealthy and can help the country out of the crisis,” 36-year old bus driver Alexandros Kagris said. “Isn’t this what the church is for, to help people?”

GREEK SALVATION

According to an internal report published by Greek daily Kathimerini last year the Church’s total income reached 20 million euros in 2008, including 12.7 million from renting out church property. Its profit for the year was 7 million euros.

A spokesman for the church, which owns a 150 million euro stake in National Bank of Greece, declined to comment on its income or the new tax bill which is expected to go to parliament on Monday and enter force as soon as it is adopted.

It is not the first time church and state have clashed. In 2000 they fell out over EU rules requiring that religion be dropped from ID cards.

Theodore Couloumbis, deputy head of the ELIAMEP think-tank, said he did not expect the church as an institution to speak out against the taxes, however.

“The fact that we are going through a major crisis will make it easier for the Church to accept this measure, otherwise it will be thought of as not contributing to the salvation of Greece’s economy,” said Couloumbis.

The church’s ruling body issued a statement blessing politicians but making no reference to the new taxes.

'Symbolic' Death Row for Decades...[ 786 ]

In California, Killers Sit on 'Symbolic' Death Row for Decades, Costing Billions

By Ed Barnes /Updated March 22, 2010 - FOXNews.com,

The state of California is losing billions of dollars keeping hundreds of prisoners on death row -- but the ultimate punishment is mostly symbolic in the state, where inmates ply the appeals process for decade after decade and are more likely to die of old age than by execution.

AP

FILE: Serial killer Richard Ramirez was sentenced to death in 1989 for committing a string of gruesome murders, but will likely die of old age rather than face execution because of the lengthy appeals process.

On June 28, 1984, a young man broke into the home of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow in Los Angeles. Over the course of a few hours he ransacked the elderly woman's apartment, raped her and repeatedly stabbed her. He then slashed her throat so badly that she was nearly decapitated. Her son found her body the next day.

It was the beginning of a spree of murder, rape and burglary that gripped Southern California for 14 months — until Richard Ramirez, a 24-year-old drifter from El Paso, Texas, was arrested in Los Angeles. By then, the man who had come to be known as "the Night Stalker" had killed no fewer than 13 people and brutally raped and disfigured several more, including:

• Vincent and Maxine Zazza. Vincent, 64, was found in his home with a bullet hole in his temple. His wife, Maxine, 44, was found naked in her bed, her eyes gouged out and with stab wounds on her face, neck, breasts, abdomen and groin.
• Elyas Abowath, 35, who was shot in the head while he slept. Ramirez allowed Abowath's wife, 29, to live — after he raped and sodomized her.
• Lela and Max Kneiding, both 66, found shot to death and mutilated with a machete.

Ramirez's crimes were marked by the satanic pentagrams he left on his victims and the sexual abuse of women who were sometimes forced to sing praises of Satan before he raped them.

No one — including Ramirez himself — doubts that his killing spree earned him a cell on California's death row. When he was found guilty of capital murder in 1989, he remarked, "Big deal. Death always went with the territory."

But so far, it hasn't. For the past 21 years, Richard Ramirez has sat in a single cell on death row in San Quentin, and he is still years away from his last meal. According to experts familiar with his case, the ritual killer is "only about halfway through the appeals process" that will end in his execution.

If that process continues at its present pace, Ramirez, who committed most of his crimes when he was in his mid-20s, won't be put to death until he is 71 years old — if he lives that long.

That a man could sit nearly 50 years on death row isn't surprising — especially in California, where critics of the state's system say the odds of a convicted killer actually living long enough to be put to death are about 100 to one. Most prisoners sentenced to execution, studies and experts say, simply die of old age or other illnesses while in prison as the appeals process grinds on.

"The death penalty is purely symbolic in California," says Natasha Minsker, who just completed a study of the death penalty in California for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. With almost 700 people on death row in the state, the study found not only that maintaining a prison and legal system to support the death penalty cost the state billions of dollars, but that, for all the money spent, the penalty is rarely used. Since 1977 only 13 people have been executed. During the same period, 59 death row inmates died of old age or other infirmities.

What is most surprising about Ramirez's appeals is that there is nothing extraordinary about them. It is the same process every prisoner on death row goes through. By law, every death sentence in California has to be appealed and reviewed by the state's Supreme Court to ensure that no one who is innocent faces the ultimate penalty.

It is a slow process that begins with a very long delay. According to Minsker and other experts, it generally takes as many as five years after a conviction before a lawyer is even appointed to file a mandatory appeal. "Nothing happens in those five years," she said. The reason, according to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, a panel appointed to look at the state's death penalty system, is that there are just too few experienced lawyers available to handle the growing number of appeals.

Then, it can take years for the appeal to be written and filed. In Ramirez's case, his first appeal didn't reach the California Supreme Court until 2002. In other cases lawyers have filed for and been granted more than 40 delays before even filing appeals. In virtually all death row appeals the cases are handled by public defenders, specially trained in the field, and paid for by taxpayers. And there is no limit to the number of appeals that can be filed.

Then, because of the gravity of the charges and California law, the appeal gets filed directly with the California Supreme Court, which is the ultimate arbiter of all state legal matters and is simply overwhelmed by death row cases. In 2008 it had a backlog of more than 400 capital cases alone, a number that has grown since then.

Death penalty convictions also require that all habeas corpus appeals go directly to the Supreme Court. These appeals concern matters that might not be in the trail record, such as the discovery of new evidence, prosecutorial misconduct, or ineffective legal counsel. In virtually all other criminal cases, these appeals are handled by the courts that try them. Efforts to allow lower courts to pick up some of the load have been proposed over the years, but no action has been taken by the state's legislature.

Among the arguments that Ramirez made in his appeals process, only one seemed to carry weight: his argument that he had ineffective counsel at his trial. He said his two lawyers, who were hired by his parents, had only five years of legal experience between them when they took on the most complicated case in the history of the state's legal system. That appeal was denied in 2005 — and immediately appealed. Calls to Ramirez's attorneys and appellate attorney were not returned.

In September 2006 the California Supreme Court finally turned down that appeal, ending his appeals before the state courts.

But that didn't trigger the required hearing to set an execution date. Instead, it triggered the beginning of a new set of appeals — this time to federal courts, which do not consider these cases until all efforts in state courts have been exhausted, according to an expert with the California Attorney General's office.

And here, according to sources in the attorney general's office, things can take a while and get very complicated. "For example," said a lawyer who asked not to be named, "if the appellant brings up an issue that involves issues about the state's conduct, the federal process stops and the state ... begins again. It can get very complicated."

For Ramirez, the federal process is just beginning, and its length will be determined by the arguments he makes. But experts say he has an edge over death row inmates from other parts of the country, because his federal appeals will be heard in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Unlike other federal appeals courts, which tend to spend little time on death penalty cases, the Ninth Circuit takes them very seriously. In 2005 its chief judge told the Los Angeles Times that "We don't turn them (executions) out the way a lot of Southern states do. We go to such lengths to minimize the possibility of error, and we've built in a lot of delay."

Just how long the federal appeals process will take is impossible to answer, but it will not be quick. An appeal denied by a three-judge appeals panel, the first step, can be appealed "en banc," to the entire nine-judge panel. If that is denied, the next stop is the United States Supreme Court. But again, there is no limit to the number of appeals he can file, and no way to know how long it will take the court

Αποθήκευση τώρα

s to dispose of them.

Until then, Ramirez will just grow old — older than most of the people he killed back when he was 24.

South Africa : KwaZulu Natal...[ 785 ]

KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

KwaZulu Natal Travel Guide / KwaZulu Natal's leisure options provide a multitude of choices to keep you endlessly entertained. From the city of Durban you can catch a shuttle to Margate, at the hub of the South Coast Golf Circuit. When you're not playing golf, fishing or lying on the beach, you can visit a crocodile farm, a nature reserve or follow an arts and crafts trail.

A short flight takes you to the historic city of Pietermaritzburg, gateway to the Natal Midlands and the charming Drakensberg resorts. No holiday in KwaZulu Natal would be complete without a visit to at least one of the KwaZulu Natal game reserves, renowned throughout the world. Appropriately enough, the Zulu name for Durban is Thekwini, meaning "The Place Where the Earth and the Ocean Meet". But apart from an effervescent ocean lined with golden beaches, KwaZulu Natal's capital city, Durban, offers a subtropical carnival atmosphere and summer sunshine all year round. From around the globe, day in, day out, pleasure-seekers converge on the city to play on the golden, palm-fringed sands. In addition to the attractions of sea, surf and sport, leisure options encompass an eclectic range.

At excellent one-stop shopping centres, you can buy anything from photographic equipment to couturier clothes and rare antiques. Flea markets and craft trails attract leisurely browsers, and discount stores offer quality merchandise at bargain basement prices. Within a stone's throw of the city centre, oriental bazaars, fragrant with spice and incense, offer silks, saris, unusual jewellery and ornaments. Pubs, discos and action bars are firm favourites.

Umhlanga, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Theatres and concert halls present classical, avant-garde and ethnic programmes, and art galleries display works created by the internationally famous and up-and-coming local talents. KwaZulu Natal's restaurants represent every facet of the city's cosmopolitan nature and cater for every palate and pocket. At the end of the day, what could be better that strolling on the beach to the rhythm of the waves?

Throughout the year, holiday-makers flock to their favourite KwaZula Natal coastal haunts to cultivate a tan, ride the waves, eat, drink and generally have fun. Besides the sweeping beaches and calm lagoons where surfing, snorkelling, fishing and swimming are enjoyed, you can play golf, bowls and tennis or just soak up the sun. From Durban to Amanzimtoti, Ballito to Umhlanga Rocks, to the rugged Wild Coast, the highway links popular seaside resorts in rapid succession. The road snakes through subtropical bush, cane fields and hills garlanded with hibiscus blooms. North of Durban, the coastline stretching from the Tugela Mouth to the Umdloti River is aptly known as the Dolphin Coast. Close inshore, shoals of bottle-nose dolphins gambol in the waves, providing endless entertainment with their engaging antics.

Arguably the gem of the entire Natal North Coast is the Umhlanga Coastline. The Umhlanga Coastline offers a combination of quiet village life with first world amenities and a cosmopolitan buzz. It also offers a diversity of activities in exotic and magnificent landscapes.

The Drakensberg in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Further north, KwaZulu Natal's game sanctuaries epitomise the best of the African wilderness. This is one of the few places where good game viewing can be enjoyed in close proximity to the pleasures of scuba diving and deep-sea fishing. Habitats from coastal dune forests to open bushveld support a wide diversity of wildlife, from the elephant to the tiny suni. Bird life is equally prolific. Most parks offer peaceful surroundings, comfortable accommodation, game drives, hiking and walking safaris.

The Elephant Coast forms the north-east region of South Africa's unique KwaZulu Natal Province, stretching northward from Lake St Lucia (a world heritage site), to the borders of Swaziland and Mozambique. The region is so named because it is home to South Africa's largest herd of indigenous African Elephants.

Between the coastal playgrounds and the majestic Drakensberg, there is an area of gentle pastoral beauty known as the Natal Midlands. The highway meanders through rolling wooded hills and grassy plains scattered with towns, villages and hospitable country inns. On lush farmlands, plump cattle and thoroughbred horses graze and game sanctuaries throughout the region support large numbers and varieties of wildlife.

Nestling in the valleys, fine hotels and leisure resorts offer accommodation in KwaZulu Natal and recreational options second to none. Fast-flowing rivers are frequented by anglers hoping for a record-breaking rainbow trout. Climbers scale the jagged peaks where eagles and bearded vultures fly; hikers and horse-riders follow nature trails. The less energetic shrug off city stress by drinking in the birdsong, the crisp clean air and the stunning views.

KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Set in the heart of Zulu country, the city of Pietermaritzburg is one of charm and dignity, at its loveliest in spring when masses of azaleas burst into bloom. When the first Voortrekkers arrived in 1837, they found a tranquil countryside graced by forests, hills and valleys. They settled on a fertile tract of land beside the Umsindusi River and named it after two of their leaders, Gerrit Maritz and Piet Retief. Six years later, the British upgraded the village to a military garrison town. Today, numerous Victorian and Edwardian buildings, quaint pedestrian lanes and other landmarks reflect the substantial British contribution to the development of the town. And in shady, tree-lined suburbs, spacious red brick bungalows and upper-crust boarding schools reinforce the colonial ambience of "The Last Outpost of the British Empire" as Maritzburg is affectionately known.

The city of Pietermaritzburg has a wide range of shops, Pietermaritzburg hotels and restaurants, providing the ideal gateway to the exceptional country inns, recreational resorts and game reserves of the Natal Midlands and the Drakensberg.

"Diolkos" and "Isthmus" Athens to Corinth...[ 784 ]

Corinth Canal, the "Isthmus" and the ancient "Diolkos"

( Reproduction-Αναδημοσίευση )

When traveling from Athens to Corinth - a distance of about 80 kilometers - you leave Attica to enter the Peloponnese while crossing an Isthmus, a narrow and fairly low-lying, 6 kilometers wide, tongue of land which links Central Greece (Sterea Hellas) with the Peloponnese as well as with the east parts of the Saronic Gulf.

Both economically and strategically, the Isthmus of Corinth, as this narrow stretch of land is called, has played a very important role in the history of Greece. It is the only land bridge between the country's north and south. Populations, armies and commodities have got to move through it.

This basic fact let to the birth of an important city, Corinth, at its southern edge. There were times when the influence of Corinth extended beyond the Saronic Gulf to the Aegean Sea and beyond the Gulf of Corinth to the Adriatic.
Hence, two important ports made their appearance in antiquity on both sides of the Isthmus - Lechaion on the Gulf of Corinth, and Kenchreai on the shores of the Saronic Gulf.

The Diolkos

How to get your ship from the Gulf of Corinth to the Saronic Gulf and vice versa? The question plagued the seafaring Greeks since very early times. It was first solved towards the end of the 7th century BCE, or at the beginning of the 6th century, by a daring decision which led to the greatest of technical construction works in early Greece : the building of the Diolkos or Slipway.

The course of Diolkos which is illustrated above is the one proposed by Raepsaet, yet Walter Werner and others suggest another route, which describes a large curve into the peloponnesian side on the modern canal, before ending in Kalamaki.

Between 1956 and 1959, the Greek Archaeological Society carried out excavations designed to trace the course of the Diolkos. The greater part of the Slipway, which in fact ran all the way from the Gulf of Corinth to the Saronic Gulf, was brought to light.

The Diolkos was a roadway with a width of 10 meters at the starting point on the Gulf of Corinth. The stone-paving began at the very edge of the sea. Ships were taken to this starting point and there dragged onto the Diolkos. These ships rested initially on wooden cylinders and were then transferred to a special wheeled vehicle.

To reduce the weight of the ship as far as possible, it was unloaded before being hoisted onto the Diolkos and the unloaded commodities were taken by ordinary road to the other end of the Isthmus.

Narrowing to between 3.50 and 6 metres after its starting point the Slipway was paved with porous stone throughout its length. Two deep parallel grooves, which ran at a distance of 1.50 metres from each other, marked the Diolkos.

Thus, the ship was dragged all across the Isthmus. On reaching the Slipway's terminus on the Saronic Gulf, it was lowered into the sea, the cargo was loaded again, and the ship continued with its journey. This arrangement did not merely speed up traffic.

It also enabled ships moving between the Central and Eastern Mediterranean to avoid the rough seas almost unavoidable in a voyage round the Peloponnese.

The Diolkos was repeatedly repaired in ensuing centuries and remained in use until the days of Augustus, though the appearance of ever-larger ships curtailed its usefulness. There is hardly any mention of its use in later centuries, and then only in connection with warlike activities.

Cutting through the Isthmus

The use of the Diolkos was difficult and expensive at all times and proved impossible with larger ships. Hence, in ancient days already, people envisaged cutting a canal across the Isthmus, so as to link the two Gulfs permanently and make it possible for all ships at all times to avoid the dangerous journey past Cape Maleas, off South Peloponnese.



Yet, technical means then available made it in fact impossible to carry through such an ambitious scheme in those early days.

It was Emperor Nero who first attempted to cut a canal through the Isthmus. Feasibility studies were completed, the necessary work force was gathered, and Nero in person started the digging with a little golden pickaxe.
Three months later, however, Nero died, and the project was abandoned.

Immediately after the liberation of Greece in the first half of the 19th century, the canal project was revived under Kapodistrias. Its execution hung fire until 1882, when a French firm took the work in hand. It was a Greek firm which completed it in 1893.

The Corinth Canal is 6,343 metres long. Its width amounts to 25 metres, its depth 8 metres and the earth cliffs flanking it reach a maximum height of 63 metres. Two large bridges - one for railway, and one for the National Road, both of them rebuilt after World War Two - now link Central Greece with the Peloponnese, while below them fairly large ships are piloted directly from one sea to the other.
In 1975 a second road bridge was built to ease the increased volume of traffic.
Most reliable yacht charter firms will arrange all paperworks for your crossing through the canal. Instead of sailing the Corinth Gulf, there is the option of sailing around the Peloponese peninsula - compare the northern (Corinth Canal) route and the southern route.