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Should Church Pay More Taxes due to Financial Crisis?

This is the third year Greece is dealing with a financial crisis and some propose that since salaries have been cut  and people are becoming unemployed, maybe the state should raise the taxes for the Greek Orthodox Church.  The Church has a great fortune but enjoys a privileged status when it comes to taxes. However, the Church denies the accusations that it is not sufficiently taxed. They underline that the church is playing a vital social, economic and spiritual role in this time of hardship.
More than 100.000 people have joined a Facebook page “Tax The Church” and 29.000 have signed an online petition. Greece has no official land register so the land property of the church can not be estimated and some believe that there is plenty of anecdotal evidence about the assets of the Church. Byzantine emperors were very generous with the men of God and during the Ottoman Era many people entrusted their property to the Church to protect it from expropriation. So it is really hard to know what is the exact size of the Church property.
Another issue which has been raised is that the state at the moment pays for the salaries of about 9.000 black-robed priests and 100 people who run the church as well as the pensions of retired clergy. Facebook campaigners claim that it costs the public purse 268 million euro a year. Father Timotheos, the Greek Church’s Holy Synod spokesman, thinks this is justified since the church handed 96% of the land it owned when Greece became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1821.
Father Timotheos claims that the church pays more land tax than ordinary businesses and 20% of their rental income in tax. Moreover, several ministry buildings, university and hospitals in Athens are church property leased to the state for a pittance or free of charge. In 2010, they spent 100 million euro on philanthropic acts and helped people pay off small loans or put them in contact with wealthy donors. They also continue to offer assistance to soup kitchens, to debt relief and counseling for Greeks who deal with economic problems.
Former ministers said that there is political cost when the Church fights with the government. The socialist political party Pasok took a beating when it fought with the church over national identity cards and earlier in 1980, over church property. As a result, even though the government is desperate for revenue, neither the state nor the Church has an interest in a public day of reckoning over taxes and land. The Greek Orthodox Church may not have the same influence it did some years ago, but the priests command respect and provide continuity in many communities.

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