Interestingly, you can declare yourself religious with "Aglican" as your denomination and I think you won't pay tax.

As I was briefed before first registering here, I declared "none" on my registration and have not paid it since.

I had a wedding ceremony in an Anglican church here - I did of course make a nice contribution to their funds

In Kanton Basel the church tax is 1% of your bruto income.
Uncle Max is right about being asked when you come in and nobody explains what it is for, that is if you don't ask. I asked and they told me it was for Tax purposes and I was a bit errr shocked? I wanted to go to church when I came so decided to mark Catholic (which btw I sort of am). I was told that if you plan to be part of the church life then you would want to pay the tax.

I think it is rather a personal decision

Surely that's if you are under 120 k? As above 120 k if you've been here long enough (2 yrs as a foreigner or if you are Swiss) you automatically don't pay tax at source.

What I find most disagreeable about it all is that a large chunk of the church tax (as I understand it) goes to Rome. Some stays here.

Why should this happen when there is also a collection during the service? i.e. really the tax should and could be used to fund local activities more.

I say this as an RC!

They also ask if you're married or single, without informing you that your answer affects your tax bill. What's up with that, eh?

Difference is that most of us expect that question to have tax implications, based on our home countries - whereas most of us don't expect the church question to have any (again based on our home countries.) So yeah, you make a careless assumption and it bites you. Bit me too. I don't think we can blame this one on the sneaky Swiss though.

Ooooh okay this thread is interesting. I don't really go to church that regularly, just from time to time, not enough to be a part of the church life. So this is interesting to know.

The church tax isn't necessarily an insignificant amount - depending on one's situation it can run into the many thousands. Quite a sum to have to fork over to an institution whose beliefs, values, and goals may conflict with one's own.

I am a sometime Catholic, and don't earn a penny here. My husband is very much not religious, and he earns all the family income. Because of the way the families are taxed (at least in SZ) , if I were to register as Catholic we'd get hit for the full church tax - meaning my non-Catholic husband would be forced to pay his hard earned cash to a church where he is not even welcome.

So, we have registered as non-religious. To play fair, I don't go to the local church. If I feel the occasional need to tend to my soul, I go to Mass at the monastery in the next valley, making whatever voluntary donation I see fit. (They are a far more open and welcoming bunch anyway.)

As for the charity aspect - I prefer to donate directly to the causes I support. No need for the middleman.

In the end it's a matter of conscience, I guess. But one should be sure one fully understands the financial implications of church membership before signing on the dotted line.

I hope it was not a hired band?
I don't buy that. My old Swiss neighbours get lot of value out of me and I don't belong to any church.

I have to say when I moved here I knew I'd need to pay Church tax. Even though I've never set foot in a church here I payed it out of solidarity. In the mean time I've grown so desillusioned with religion that I don't want to give them any money.

I was very surprised that just declearing myself confessionless on the tax declearation isn't good enough. Seeing as it's of no consequence why do they even ask it?

I recently told them that I'm leaving the Church (even though I'm not even baptised so I never joined them but anyway). I got a letter back from the priest saying he respects my decision and takes it seriously. He would like to meet to talk about it. I see no need to as I've made my decision.

I have not yet recieved an answer from the commune. Does the church also have to confirm that I've left the church before it's offical? If it does then I'll have to call them up as well

I am not sure about this because my husband is Protestant and I am Catholic so he pays to his church and I to mine. When we first arrived and he was still looking for a job I only paid my tax and not his...

Francesco,
Haven't you filled in a form which asked you to declare your religion when you got your auslanderausweis?
That was enough I guess, not to get into this "paying or paying not the church-tux". But then again, if you're a Catholic or Protestant and want a marriage ceremony etc. ..hmm. You may turn to other Neo-Protestant churches anyway..just a thought.

When I first registered at the Kreisbüro they asked me what religion I was. I looked confused as for many of us godless Englanders, religion is but a childhood memory. 'Church of England?' the official prompted. 'Ummm . . .. yeah', I mumbled, uncertainly.

I have no idea if I've been taxed or not. When I submitted my tax return I did make sure that the religion box was definitely unticked. I guess I'll wait and see what comes back from the tax office.

Two points:

1) Generally, there are only a few taxed "religions". One is the Catholic Church (big C), the other is Swiss Protestant. I'm not sure about Jewish, etc., being an Anglican. Anglicans do not have to pay tax.

2) A friend of my husband's ticked the "no tax" form when he moved here. He then got married (didn't change his tax form), had kids and had them baptized in the Catholic Church. They were more than happy to do the baptism, but then sent the man a bill for 5 yrs worth of back church taxes. Good times!

Oh no, you'd NOTICE whether you were taxed or not.. my removal consultant strongly adviced me to pay attention to what I fill in there, as (as long as I understood but I might be wrong though) the tax is 8%..

The tax administration collects for catholic, protestants and jewish.
I read that the muslims are trying to organize similar tax collection with the federal administration.

The interesting thing, is that they have 2 other fields in the tax forms and tax software (and obviously not collecting money for these options):
- other religion
- no religion

So why do they need this distinction?
I'd say if you are orthodox, muslim, hinduist, buddhist, sikh, shintoist or any other religion chose "no religion" to be on the safe side and avoid future taxes

Unless you consider yourself a member of your home country's state church, or a Catholic, or a Lutheran, or think that's your a member of religion due to an accident of birth, then you're not obliged to pay church tax. I don't see anything underhand or devious about this. It's just a matter of understanding how the system works.

For example - before we arrived in CH, I was asked by my new employer if I was in receipt of child benefit. To which I answered yes, because, as a UK citizen, living in the UK, we got child benefit. It wasn't until later that I found out that what was meant was whether I was already getting child benefit from another source (i.e. via my wife's employer) in Switzerland. It was two years before the mistake was noticed and rectified, with a nice lot of back child benefit. Nothing devious about it. Simply a misunderstanding on how Swiss child benefit works, and lack of explanation from my employer.

I really don't understand why people get so worked up about it. It's a voluntary tax.

No Catholic church can charge someone to worship, enter or participate in church activities, regardless of what the government says.

Has anyone see a fundraising event to repair their Church's roof in Switzerland ?

A swiss citicien in the kanton Zürich who wishes to leave the protestant church, must write a letter to the local priest`s office. You tell them you want not to be a member of the church because of some reason.

In my case, i got a rude expressed answer back without being sorry of my wish or further efforts keeping me in the church. With the instruction that i will not get a abdiction or a churches blessed funeral.

That letter you send to the municipal administration, every time you move you need to hand out this letter to your new municipal administration.

Businesses are obliged to pay church tax (kanton Zürich) it does not matter what religion the business keepers are.

But you can claim that your business must be blessed 2times a year and occasional church service held in your business. I am not joking. But you can not force your employees to atempt unless they are paid in this time.

As a beliver you can deduct tax on your tax declaration for prayers you do, your priest will you hand out a dvotions meter for that.

That's the way I think is best. Register as non religious then just donate directly when you feel like you want.

OMG! Really?!

OMG! That was rude saying that about your funeral. Yeah that's totally different from how it is in America none of that is necessary at all. You just join a church when/if you feel like it then leave when/if you feel like it no taxes or anything like that involved, no official letters of leaving a church or anything. You give when/if you want and that's it. I see. This is interesting to hear how others do it differently. For the way I am, it's best to just mark as non religious. Then if I'm in the mood to go to church from time to time I'll just donate something if I want at that time. I probably won't attend at all until my Swiss German gets better anyway. So non religious is better for me. I don't really have to go to church I don't really need to go in that way. This is interesting.

I would love the to be true - it appeals to my sense of the absurd.

offerings, and I know that quite a few churches expect you to tithe as a member - so that's 10% of your gross income for some of them... do Swiss churches have an offering plate (that they expect you to fill) in addition to income from the church tax? If not, given that the tax is voluntary for individuals, then what's the difference?