# Can church tax be deducted on Sch A?



## BearDown (Sep 20, 2014)

Hi all,

I have a quick question regarding church tax. For those that don't know what it is, this is a tax collected by the governments of some European countries on the behalf of churches, and is usually calculated as a percentage of taxable income or income tax.

Since you can avoid paying this tax if you either aren't a member of a church or withdraw your membership, I know this does not meet the "compulsory payment" criteria that the IRS has for eligible foreign taxes, thus you can't take a credit for it on your US tax return.

My question is, can this tax be taken as deduction on Line 6 of Schedule A? The instructions merely say:

"Include on this line income taxes you paid to a foreign country and generation skipping tax (GST) imposed on certain income distributions."

So let's assume I have a German tax return and I claim the income tax paid on my 1116. Can I also claim the church tax I paid on Sch A to get some benefit from it?


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

BearDown said:


> So let's assume I have a German tax return and I claim the income tax paid on my 1116. Can I also claim the church tax I paid on Sch A to get some benefit from it?


Only if you have enough deductions to itemize. The standard deduction these days is up to $12,000 for a single or married filing separately taxpayer. So, unless you have other deductions that bring you past the standard deduction amount, it's really not in your best interest to bother with Schedule A.


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## Moulard (Feb 3, 2017)

Another reason you could not treat it as an income tax is because it is not an income tax if you get a personal economic benefit from it. Because it is tied to your personal membership of a church, and the funds go to the church, it is reasonably likely that this would be considered a personal benefit.


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## BearDown (Sep 20, 2014)

Bevdeforges said:


> Only if you have enough deductions to itemize. The standard deduction these days is up to $12,000 for a single or married filing separately taxpayer. So, unless you have other deductions that bring you past the standard deduction amount, it's really not in your best interest to bother with Schedule A.


Right, this is assuming that Sch A comes out better than the standard deduction.



Moulard said:


> Another reason you could not treat it as an income tax is because it is not an income tax if you get a personal economic benefit from it. Because it is tied to your personal membership of a church, and the funds go to the church, it is reasonably likely that this would be considered a personal benefit.


Great point!


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## Nononymous (Jul 12, 2011)

This seems like the worst of all possible worlds: getting stuck with the church tax, AND filing US tax returns!


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Nononymous said:


> This seems like the worst of all possible worlds: getting stuck with the church tax, AND filing US tax returns!


There's always the "nasty look" you get from the clerk in the Rathaus when you hand in the form where you've marked "Keine" for you religion. Tried to explain that I had been living in California, but she didn't get my little joke.


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## underation (Oct 25, 2018)

It certainly seems bizarre for a German taxpayer to opt to pay a voluntary tax in order to reduce other voluntary taxes.


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## underation (Oct 25, 2018)

I suppose US citizens living in Germany, who affiliate with a particular religion or denomination, could decide to avoid the tax by funding their own building, and never making a claim for state aid for its maintenance, yet preserving membership of both identities; but it might work out more expensive, and might seem to non-American practitioners of the same religion to be little more than a tax-avoidance shelter.

Culture clash.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

underation said:


> I suppose US citizens living in Germany, who affiliate with a particular religion or denomination, could decide to avoid the tax by funding their own building, and never making a claim for state aid for its maintenance, yet preserving membership of both identities; but it might work out more expensive, and might seem to non-American practitioners of the same religion to be little more than a tax-avoidance shelter.
> 
> Culture clash.


That's not how the church tax works. There are only specific denominations that are taxed - and those denominations have a representative council that is part of the government structure. The tax isn't exactly "voluntary" - and there is some concern at the number of folks who declare themselves "atheists" or "none" apparently to get out of the tax. 

I'm not sure that the Church Tax counts as a "state or local tax" in the sense of the itemized deductions, either. But it's one of those things where, if you did, indeed, have enough itemizable deductions, I seriously doubt they'd question the Church Tax unless it somehow made up a large proportion of your itemizable deductions.


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## underation (Oct 25, 2018)

Bevdeforges said:


> That's not how the church tax works. There are only specific denominations that are taxed - and those denominations have a representative council that is part of the government structure. The tax isn't exactly "voluntary" - and there is some concern at the number of folks who declare themselves "atheists" or "none" apparently to get out of the tax.


According to the account I read after googling (didn’t keep the link but it may have been Wikipedia), it’s a consequence of the Reformation. I gather it became necessary to work out a way for non-Catholic churches to be maintained, since the Catholic church wasn’t picking up the bill; hence this hypothecated voluntary tax on members?

In the UK (as I understand it) churches are maintained by their members; which seems to be rather similar to what’s been described as the church tax, if I’ve understood correctly; apart from the German tax authority helping to collect the voluntary payments from the members.


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