Germany / Berlin, 18th and 19th century

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Found some info on the "meat tax" for Berlin in the 18th and 19th century. That was an "established religion" thing. Most of the churches were state-supported, and the government collected taxes for them. There are refs in Google Book search, but with only parts of the books available, it's hard to find all the info. Germany still has a church tax like that, but it's tied to income taxes now, not sales taxes. (Today, the big church tax issue there is with Catholics leaving the church. In Germany, that's a formal act; you opt out at the tax office, the church is notified, they excommunicate you, and your baptismal certificate is canceled. Then your taxes go down. 1.1 million people have done this. [1]) --John Nagle (talk) 18:29, 16 January 2011 (UTC)Reply