Only church members have to pay church taxes. The churches themselves determine who is a member of a church within the framework of the constitution. The relevant regulations belong to the „own affairs“ of the religious societies within the meaning of Art. 140 of the Basic Law and Art. 137 of the Weimar Constitution. Therefore, tax courts may not interpret the wording of the relevant provisions of internal church law according to their own ideas, but must apply them in the same way as the relevant internal church authorities do. This also applies to the regulations on the re-entry of a former church member, as the Federal Fiscal Court has ruled.
Practical example:
The plaintiff had appealed against the Protestant church tax assessed by the church tax office. He was able to prove that he had left the church in 1973. However, the church tax office assumed that the claimant had rejoined in 1985. It based this assumption primarily on an old index card and the fact that the claimant had paid church tax for many years. The Munich Tax Court affirmed the re-entry and dismissed the action. The BFH overturned the judgment and referred the case back. The tax court's findings on internal church law were not sufficient to justify re-entry. In the second instance, the tax court will now have to clarify whether and under what conditions the former church member, who had his main place of residence in Baden-Württemberg at the time, could declare re-entry into the Protestant church to a Bavarian pastor.
Church tax liability: Who is a member of a church is determined by the churches themselves within the framework of the constitution. The constitutional requirements for the tax courts' investigations into church membership law must therefore be observed.