Rechtsfragen der Kirchensteuer

In the various European countries, churches and other religious groups have different methods to acquire money. One of these is the tax collected by the churches in Germany. This is in fact a tax, not a government tax imposed upon the inhabitants of the entire country but a tax levied by each church, with the authorization of the government, on its members. In this work, Felix Hammer outlines how the churches' right to collect taxes came about. This began in the Middle Ages, as the author shows, and then goes on to describe how this is rooted in the constitution, what its current significance for the churches is and what the present tax laws are. He concludes by taking a look at the future of taxation by the churches in a united Europe.