Like most adults I get a lot of mail, junk mail and other advertisements most of which doesn’t even need to be examined. My credit card company sent me a letter that appeared to be my statement but it wasn’t. It was a nice letter explaining that in the future the credit card company would be charging church tax on any interest received.
Huh? Well, in Germany the government collects church tax on income earned for those individuals who are part of organized religion with common examples being the Catholic or Protestant church. This money then is funneled back to the churches. People normally associate the church tax with their paycheck or perhaps banking interest.
I found it to be an amazing move, after all how many people make interest on their credit card. Most credit card users end up paying 19% or more, now if for some reason they actually make interest on their credit card they will end up paying a good chunk of that back to the church. It is difficult to say if this is an example of bureaucracy at its worst or an example of greed run amok to try and get the last penny.