The archdiocese of Freiburg wins its case before the VGH [Administrative Court of Appeal] of Baden-Württemberg with Graf von Westphalen: A "renunciation of church tax" is void

The Verwaltungsgerichtshof [Administrative Court of Appeal] of Baden-Württemberg has ruled by judgment pronounced on 4 May 2010 that renouncing a church, which under state law has the status of a public body, cannot be confined to the state legal body. The archdiocese of Freiburg has thereby won its appeal against a judgment by the Verwaltungsgericht [Administrative Court] of Freiburg.

The case concerned a retired professor of Catholic church law who renounced the church in 2007. In so doing he used the words "römisch-katholisch, Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts" ["Roman Catholic public body"] to describe the religious denomination; i.e. he only declared that he was leaving the public body, not the religious denomination. The question now was whether such a "renunciation of purely church tax" is possible.

The City of Staufen issued a certificate certifying the professor's renunciation of church tax and the Verwaltungsgericht [Administrative Court] of Freiburg considered this to be lawful at first instance. The archdiocese has now successfully appealed against this judgment. The ruling, which was pronounced in Mannheim on Tuesday, makes it clear that a declaration, whereby one renounces the church, may not contain any conditions or additions and that unlawful additions make the declaration void. A "modified renunciation of the church" is not possible; rather the declaration of renunciation must show that the person concerned genuinely wishes to fully renounce the religious denomination.

The possibility of renouncing only church tax violates Article 140 German Constitution (Grundgesetz) in conjunction with Article 137(6) of the Constitution of the German Reich (Weimar Reichsverfassung). Under said provisions religious denominations, which are public bodies, are entitled to levy church taxes on the basis of the state tax lists.

This judgment held that the professor did not really renounce the church. Consequently, the church taxes will be assessed retroactively and paid over.
No leave to appeal against the judgment was granted.
The archdiocese of Freiburg was represented by Dr. Volker Stehlin, a partner at Graf von Westphalen.

Contact:

Dr. Volker Stehlin, Rechtsanwalt (lawyer) and partner
Tel.: +49 761 21808-324
v.stehlin@gvw.com

Presse:

Annegret König, Business Development & Communication
Tel.: +49 (0) 40 35922-205 or +49 (0) 160 7033250
a.koenig@gvw.com