Pajak Gereja – Kirchensteuer – Church Tax

Before, I never knew that the church tax is really exists, I though that was a joke a friend of mine. When I asked her why she never attend the church anymore, she told me that her church is just like making business with a lot of things like churh tax. I did not believe on what he said, untill I received a letter from my Bank (Deutchebank) here in Berlin few weeks ago, saying that if I meet the criteria, some amount of money will be debited from my Bank account, what?

This morning, I went to a Bank filial and asked about the letter. The CS welcomed me warmly and read the letter and checked my profile. Then she told me not to worry because I will never meet that criteria; firstly I am still a student, secondly my income is not that high so that I do not have to pay the income tax, and most importantly is that I am not  a cristian and not affiliated with any church here in Germany. I said Tchuss to her and go home with a big smile,  this time I don’t have to pay for someting that I do not really use :).

Beside the church tax, I just knew that those who has dog also has to pay the dog-tax in Germany. What?

Pernah dengar pajak gereja? saya juga baru tahu setelah tiba di Eropa dan ada kawan yang mengaku malas ke gereja gara-gara tingginya pajak gereja yang harus dibayar mereka. Awalnya saya anggap itu hanya joke dia, tetapi setelah beberapa waktu lalu saya ke Finanzamt (semacam kantor pajak) dio Berlin untuk mengurus masalah surat pajak dan sebagainya, saya menemukan ada bagian khusus di kantor tersebut yang diperuntukkan untuk pembayaran pajak gereja dan pajak ajing seperti yang bisa anda lihat di foto diatas.

Okelah jika pajak gereja menjadi kewajiban warga negara yang beragama kristen dan berafiliasi dengan gereja tertentu, tapi apa untuk pelihara anjing juga haru bayar pajak? kadang Jerman ini memang aneh ya 🙂

*Kirchensteuer: Pajak Gereja

*Hundesteuer: Pajak Anjing

Kalau dinegara lain ada yang punya pengalaman?