How to get out of paying church tax - Germany

I ve been paying it for years, I didnt know how much I had been paying them till I realised KS meant church tax!. so went to the local rathouse and took the stand to opt OUT. Again!..they wanted more money for this procedure as if they hadnt had enough! So feeling like a sinner I signed the dotted line!
Anyway...that was back in March!, and every time my loan comes through it still has the flippen KS and im still paying them???
I asked the "up his own arse chef" in work about it and he said I should get it back at the end of the year...A "Arbeitcollegue" tells me NO! I MUST obtain my loansteuer karte and give it to the rat haus! I ve asked in work..but it still hasnt come from the "chef up his own arse", ! and Im still left paying towards the church.
Has anyone else ever ausgetreten?? did you stop paying immediately? did u need your loansteuer karte to give to rathaus or did it happen automatically?
I suppose I should go to local rathaus to speak to the "ever so friendlypeople" there :rolleyes:an find out exactly whats going on, but its usually closed when I come outta work.

I ve got to go an pack now...off to the UK on Friday and probby end up taking everything but the...küchewanne

shannon what i know is you haff to go to the amtsgericht and and fill out a form out. from ther it goes on and they only can do it .that is what they do in paderborn
only ask them

http://www.ibka.org/artikel/ag00/gebuehr.html

hope i did help

My wife did it. She asked her boss for her Steurkarte. Went to the Stadtverwaltung, told them she had left the Church and didn't want to pay Church Tax. They entered it manually on her card and imput her details into the computer. End of the next calendar month she had stopped paying it.

if you have a religion like anglican you don't have to pay church tax in germany and also not, if you don't have any religion at all. Do what Dusty said and they will change your Lohnsteuerkarte and from next month on you won't pay it anymore.

You cant just stop paying it, because if it's on your tax card it goes off automatically. But you can get your money back from the church where you paid the money to. Was it evangelic or catholic or what? They will send you a letter soon, why you have left them (though you never been in). Just tell them that your english and they will pay you back

When they asked you about your religion when you registered in Germany, what did you say, you were? My boyfriend said anglican and they put evangelisch on the card

urgh (edited this 4 times yet, hope now it's ok to understand what I am trying to say? :$ )

sorry Hannah, you will have to try noch einmal.

All the other posts are gefüllt with German wörter - your four Versuche managed to fit a peinliche total of two deutsche words into three und einhalb paragraphs.

Go to my Zimmer, you naughty Mädel!

Don't know whether this might help anyone but just in case...

When I was here as a student I put catholic on my form not thinking twice about it as I wasn't paying taxes then. Returning years later to work I filled in my Anmeldungsformular and said I had no religion (being a very lapsed catholic there was no way I was paying church tax). They cross-checked and discovered my earlier form and tried to say that I had to go through the rigmarole of officially leaving the church and pay the fee for doing so. BUT it turned out that I didn't. UK birth certificates don't have our religion on them, and so in the eyes of German law I was never legally a member of the RC church and so couldn't actually deregister. I kept very quiet about the baptism certificate I think my mum has somewhere. So although I had to endure a lecture on a) my fraudulent claim to be RC on a form when I was a student and the heathen ways of the British which proves how appalling a country we are, I never had to pay anything or officially austreten. Maybe someone else can try this...

Neither my wife nor myself pay KS, but our local vicar was more than happy to christian our daughter. Although for a free lunch and a couple of glasses of wine I thik he'd do anything. (And if you're reading this Vic, that was a joke.)

Thanks for the replies everyone
Hannah..I wrote on the form that I was Roman Cath.not really knowing that Id have to pay so much.

My procedure at the local Rathaus was to listen to some paragraph of Gott knows what lol Pay them more money! and then sign to get out of the church society.

Today I asked "Herrman the German"( one of the ok bosses) if he had my Loansteuerkarte as Im still paying this Church tax, "Noch Nicht" was the reply ( think he actually forgot to get on to whoever has got it)

Its been 4 months since I signed the opting out form but im still paying? Hopefully I ll get my money back at a later date...but knowing Deutschland...I ll probably have to pay them for causing them more unnecessary inconvenience.

A3 thanks for the website..I shall look it up now

go to the rathaus and tell them you are Church of England
I have never paid church tax in all my 29 years of being here
and i am proud of it...

When I came here 10 years ago the company I work on inserted in religion box on initial form (assume for tax purposes) and without telling me 'Church of England' and result was I am exempt.
Wife (German) as non earner pays a small contribution every year to keep here membership alive so that kids may get married in the church etc

Many German colleagues have dropping out of church membership in past few years.

brgds

I'm baptised into the C of E, but I can’t claim to be religious in any shape or form, I started off not paying church tax until my wife stopped working to raise our family and wanted me to pay it for her, (she is Evangelisch), The old biddy in the Stadtamt still remembers my wife after 15-years because of her mad request, no body had before or since gone in and requested to pay it.

well it's not the question if you can claim to be religious or not. I can't neither but have to pay. Church of England is just not assesable in Germany

If you start your own religion up an alp in the allgau can you claim funds from the goverment out of the church tax fund?

I'll be bishop and need two volunteers one to ring the bells and the other to type the sermon.

can I look after the communion wine ???

As long as you keep away from the choirboys!!