(2023)
How can I reduce my church tax by claiming child benefit?
The amount of church tax depends on your place of residence. If you live in Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg, church members pay 8 percent; in other states, it is 9 percent. The basis is the assessed income tax. You therefore pay 8 or 9 percent of your income tax as church tax.
Please note: The church tax is also taken into account at the same percentage rate within the withholding tax. If child allowances are entered in employees' electronic payslip data (ELStAM), the monthly church tax is calculated based on a so-called fictitious wage tax.
Church tax without child allowance:
You live in Berlin and have a gross monthly salary of 3.000 Euro in tax class IV. Your monthly church tax is 31.44 Euro. Church tax with two child allowances: You live in Berlin and have a gross monthly salary of 3.000 Euro in tax class IV. Your monthly church tax is now 13.34 Euro.
If a "number of child allowances" is entered in the ELStAM, the monthly wage tax is not reduced, only the monthly church tax and the monthly solidarity surcharge. This also applies if you receive child benefit during the year.
In the income tax assessment, child allowances only reduce the taxable income if the child benefit is not more favourable than the tax advantage. However, for the calculation of church tax (and solidarity surcharge), the child allowances are deducted "fictitiously".
Advantage: Even if children are only to be considered for part of the year, the full child allowance and BEA allowance are always deducted for the calculation of church tax and the solidarity surcharge. This applies in the case of the end of vocational training or the birth of a child.
