Eight per thousand

The mandate tax is a tax for the benefit of religious communities or social, cultural and humanitarian purposes. It exists so far in Spain, Italy and Hungary, as an alternative to church tax and similar concepts to the church financing.

The mandate tax, the taxpayer can choose which institution the delivery is to benefit themselves: a church or religious community, the state or a non-profit organization (such as a cultural or social institution, a citizens' initiative or a non-profit organization such as Greenpeace or Amnesty International ). The mandate tax could in principle also be used for party financing. It is paid by all taxpayers; the taxpayer has only the free choice of which institution will benefit his contribution. He can not escape the mandate tax by leaving the church - as opposed to church taxes.

Other names

In a reform proposal of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society, the designations cultural tax and social tax are (or as a term: cultural and social tax ) used for similar control models.

Occasionally, this type of tax is also known as the cult control. This designation, however, is misleading: in Germany 's cult control the usual designation for the church control of the Jewish communities (§ 16 HKiStG ); the term church tax is avoided here because "church" both a Christian religious community as well as a Christian building may designate.

Coined by him term " mandate tax" already used in 1972 the church critic Horst Herrmann, who advocated to replace the church tax by that his proposed alternative to the church financing.

History

A mandate tax was introduced in Spain in 1979 and in Italy in 1984 as a model for church financing. It amounts to 0.52% in Spain and in Italy 0.8 % of personal income tax. In Italy it is therefore known as the otto per mille ( eight per thousand ). In Hungary, a similar mandate tax of 1% of the income tax was introduced in 1998. The introduction of this funding model came with the official approval of the Vatican in the form of concordats (that is, contracts between the church and a secular state ), as these countries have a very high Roman Catholic population and thus experience has shown that a large part of the mandate control of the Roman Catholic Church will flow. In Iceland there is a similar funding model by the taxpayer can decide there whether a portion of their taxes to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland or the University are expected to benefit.

Legal Implementation

The financing of religious and philosophical communities through a mandate tax is legally a form of direct state funding. It is equipped with the state-church systems of northern Europe more closely related than with the system of church tax in Germany.

Starting point for the mandate tax is the income tax burden that everyone has to pay workers to the state. About the use of his income tax the taxpayer can not decide in principle. He therefore has no influence on, for example, what proportion of the highway construction, and how much benefit the rail network. The mandate is to control at this point and allows the taxpayer a determination over part of the public finances. A control in the traditional sense, but not yet played with this determination.

The amount of the tax mandate, ie the proportion of the income tax, the state decides. The religious and philosophical communities get by in a greater dependence on the state. The members of the religious and philosophical communities can in fact be moved easily to other payments, as in many the impression to have contributed enough to finance the religious and philosophical communities.

The generated by the mandate tax amount of money - € 78 million - covers in Spain only a fraction of the Church's financial needs. The lion's share borne by the Spanish state: He pays about € 3.6 billion annually to the Church.

Situation in Germany, Austria, Switzerland

In Germany the model of the mandate tax will be for decades rejected by the Church, because financial loss compared to the current model of church tax be feared. In Germany, the church tax amounts for a long time, depending on the state of 8% or 9% of the personal income tax; it is paid only by those taxpayers who belong to one of the participating religious bodies governed by public law.

Because of the constitutional anchoring of the church tax in Article 140 of the Basic Law in conjunction with Article 137, paragraph 6 Weimar Constitution, the church tax can be abolished against the will of the churches only by constitutional amendment and then replaced by the mandate tax. The immediate and direct funding of religious and ideological communities from state funds unit, unless it is based on other constitutional norms, moreover, in conflict with the state church prohibition in Article 137 paragraph 1 Weimar Constitution.

It is discussed the mandate tax in other European countries (eg Switzerland and Austria ).