Church tax

According to Article 140 of the Basic Law in conjunction with Art. Article 137 of the Weimar Constitution, which is still valid for this area, "religious communities which are corporations under public law are entitled to levy taxes on the basis of the civil tax lists in accordance with the provisions of state law." In Bremen, the more detailed provision under state law is the Church Tax Act of the State of Bremen. According to this law, churches in the state of Bremen are entitled to levy church taxes from their church members on the basis of their own church tax regulations. In the state of Bremen, only the Jewish community in the state of Bremen and the congregations of the Protestant and Catholic churches represented in the state of Bremen currently make use of this right. While the Jewish community collects church tax from its parishioners under its own responsibility, both the Protestant and Catholic churches have transferred the collection of their church tax to the tax authorities of the state of Bremen. Church tax is calculated on the basis of income and wage tax. It currently amounts to 9% of this calculation basis.