The Church of Greece has an 11th commandment: We shall not pay

by Thanos Kamilalis

The series of these premium tax arrangements starts in 1997, when the Simitis administration released the Church of Greece from the obligation to pay the Large Property Tax. But maybe this is negligible considering the next similar move of Simitis' term, when he canceled an arrangement between the state and the church dating 60 years.

The law of 1945 and the “Head of State”

In 1945, the financial contribution from the Church of Greece to the Greek State was introduced for the first time and, in exchange the state undertook the obligation to cover the entire payroll of the Church's as an institution. It was specifically established that the Church was obliged to pay 25% of its gross income to the state, a percentage which later rose to 35%. But it's strongly suspected that the Church never honoured its part of the deal, a tactic which forced the PASOK government of 2004 to call the arrangement “ineffective”. The abolition of the Church's financial contribution was signed in January and the fact that the national elections were due a couple of months later certainly harm the government…

A few months later, it was the turn of the recently elected government of New Democracy to win the “blessing” of the Church. With one of the first bills passed in PM Karamanlis' term, the Church was acquitted from paying a 10% tax rate on their incomes from leasing their land, numerous buildings, monasteries and temples. The tax rate was gradually reduced to 7% in 2006, 4% in 2007 and finally zero in 2008. The same government decided, in 2004, that on Easter the Holy Light would be transferred from Jerusalem to Greece at the expense of the state, and accorded Head of State honours. A few months ago the SYRIZA – ANEL coalition managed to… put one over that “achievement” by flying in the country, always on public budget, the bones of St. Barbara. It was at that time when Nikos Filis, now Minister of Education, stated that “during SYRIZA's governance only two Heads of State have visited Greece: the Holy Light and St Barbara”

Τhese consecutive state “gifts” to the Church led to a massive difference between ecclesiastical incomes and expenses.  According to Archbishop Ieronimos, the Church of Greece paid 12,3 million euros in taxes in 2011. According to the, then SYRIZA's MP Dimitris Papadimoulis, the Greek State paid for the clergy's payroll approximately 220 million euros…

In the years of the crisis

During the economic crisis, the Church of Greece took advantage of a series of tax exemptions. Despite some temporarily protests it managed to avoid serious new taxes like:

ENFIA (;): The properties of the Church are exempt from the payment of the Single Property Tax Owners, at least when in concerns worship and charitable areas. A similar arrangement was contained in the Special Single End Property,  which is the “ancestor” of ENFIA.

VAT: The ecclesiastical income, be it donations of the faithful or alms chests of parishes and monasteries remains untaxed. According to recent calculations, the Church of Greece  has 7.945 parishes and over 500 monasteries and hermitages. At the same time, the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras increases the VAT rate in almost every other aspect of the market…

Also, in September 2014, 16 MP's belonging to New Democracy submitted an amendment for further “sacred” tax exemptions (including tax relief for those monks whose income is below 9500euros p.a., exemption from the obligation to submit a yearly property statement etc.)  

The lost battle

Τhe only attempt to effectively separate the Church of Greece from the Greek state and enforce the nationalization of the church property took place in 1987. It was the bill 1700/1987, which came to be known by the name of Antonis Tritsis, then Minister of Education.

The “Tritsis' law” ruled the nationalization of church property except a part that the Church could keep in order to cover its needs.  The objective assessment and development of the property would be determined by the “Administration for the organization and management of church and monastery property” which had been founded much earlier, in 1930. Although the bill faced serious opposition. This included the… aphorism of the president and six members of the Administration board. Appeals to the European Court were also made, but in 1988 the government won the first battle: 149 monasteries signed the concession contract, following a decision of the Holy Synod.

Despite the fact that the State had the right to unilaterally put the church property under its ownership if the Church did not comply, the law was never enforced. In the end this short “war” ended with a meeting of the PM Andreas Papandreou with the Archbishop Seraphim. The victory of the Church was overwhelming. Not only did it achieve the resignation of Antonis Tritsis, but the state agreed to dissolve the Administration and by doing that, it virtually let abandoned any attempt to estimate and control church property.

The case was closed. It still is.

This publication has been produced within the partnership with Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso for the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), co-funded by the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of IPS Communication Foundation and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.