Number format: this calculator uses German notation throughout — a comma is the decimal separator and a dot groups thousands. “1.234,56” means one thousand two hundred thirty-four euros and fifty-six cents. The figures come from German tax law, so they are shown the way German authorities write them.
Church tax — and how to end it
Church tax is a surcharge on income tax or wage tax, collected by the tax office on behalf of the religious bodies. It ends with membership — and membership ends only through an express declaration to the state. This page explains what it costs, what leaving does in law, and which details you have to ask your own authority for, because they differ from state to state.
What it costs
Eight percent in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, nine percent in the other federal states — but not of your income, of the tax itself. That is the point most often missed: because income tax rises progressively, the church tax rises more than proportionally with it.
The assessment base follows § 51a EStG and is not the same as the income tax assessed: for children the child allowances are always applied, even where child benefit was more favourable in the income tax. Investment income has its own formula, because the church tax reduces the base of the Abgeltungsteuer and the two therefore influence each other.
All 16 state rates are in the calculator with their source and a verbatim quotation — they are not estimates. See in the gross-to-net calculator what the church tax comes to in your case →
How leaving works
The tax liability hangs on membership of a religious body that levies taxes as a corporation under public law. It ends when you declare your departure to the competent state authority — not to your parish or your church office.
The procedure has the same shape everywhere:
- Find the competent authority. Depending on the federal state it is the registry office (Standesamt) or the local court (Amtsgericht). This is state law and it differs — the binding answer comes from your town or municipality.
- Declare it in person. The declaration is subject to form: as a rule in person with an identity card or passport, in some states also in publicly certified form. An email is not enough anywhere.
- Take the certificate with you. It is your proof for the employer and the tax office. Without it, an ongoing deduction can simply continue.
- Check the deduction. The change reaches the employer through the electronic wage tax records. Check your next payslip — if the deduction continues, the certificate is the remedy.
Three details this page deliberately does not state
They are state law and differ from state to state. Sixteen unverified figures would be worse here than none — go to the wrong office on the strength of an invented detail and you lose a day:
- The competent authority — registry office or local court.
- The fee — free of charge in some states, not in others.
- The date from which the liability ends — often with the end of the month of the declaration, but not the same everywhere. It never ends retrospectively.
Only the answer from the competent authority where you live is binding. The whole calculator works on that principle: whatever cannot be substantiated is named as such, not guessed.
What leaving does not change
- The special church levy (besonderes Kirchgeld) in a marriage of different faiths can still fall on the partner who is liable to church tax — it attaches to their membership, not to yours.
- The income tax itself stays as it was. But the special expenses deduction for church tax paid falls away (§ 10 (1) no. 4 EStG) — so the saving is somewhat smaller than the church tax rate suggests.
- Employment by a church body. Anyone employed by a church employer should clarify the employment-law consequences beforehand.
Further
- Gross-to-net calculator— tick “liable to church tax” and see the difference
- Income tax for the year— church tax in the annual calculation, with the § 51a assessment base
- Compound interest calculator— the special formula for investment income
- Church tax rate in the glossary— the 16 state rates with their sources
Terms used on this page
Each term has its own page with a plain-language explanation, the technical detail and a worked example.
- Child allowance count (Kinderfreibeträge) — A figure from the ELStAM records; it does not reduce the wage tax itself, only the solidarity surcharge and church tax.
- Church tax rate (Kirchensteuersatz) — Pre-filled with the rate of the state selected — eight percent in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, nine elsewhere.
- Federal state of the workplace (Betriebsstätte) — In the wage tax deduction the church tax rate of the employer's location applies, not that of your home address.
- More-favourable test (Günstigerprüfung) — Child benefit or child allowances: the tax office takes whichever is better of its own motion, never both.