The Church tax is a tax levied by tax-collecting religious communities. In the Lohnsteuer deduction, it is added to the existing Kirchensteuer obligation. Income tax withheld by the employer.
What is Church tax?
Church tax is fundamentally linked to Income tax, or, in the case of tax deductions from wages, to Wage tax. A prerequisite is membership of a tax-levying religious community and a corresponding Church tax liability.
Under Payroll, the resulting Church tax is withheld by the Remuneration and paid over to the tax office.
What is the Church tax?
The standard Kirchensteuer rate is 8 % of the relevant tax in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and 9 % in the other federal states.
In principle, the Wage tax is the basis of assessment for the Wage taxabzug. However, special tax regulations apply to its determination as the basis for the Church tax, including the consideration of child allowances.
What role do ELStAM play?
For the Lohnsteuer deduction, membership of a tax-levying religious community is determined via the Kirchensteuer feature in the ELStAM taken into account.
The Church tax characteristic is therefore one of the details by which the employer recognises whether Church tax is to be withheld in the respective employment relationship.
Church tax and Solidarity surcharge – what is the difference?
Church tax and Solidarity Surcharge are different charges. The Church tax is levied by tax-collecting religious communities on the basis of the respective Church tax law.
By contrast, the Solidarity surcharge is a federal supplementary levy. Both can occur in connection with the Lohnsteuer deduction, but they are legally distinct from one another.
