Godliness is next to taxliness

Germany wouldn't strike you as a deeply spiritual country, but there are some hidden levels of religiosity that can jump up and surprise you. On the tax registration form they ask you for your religion. I know of other auslanders who have made the error of thinking back to childhood and writing Catholic or Protestant in that space. They have then been forced to pay the named organisation a monthly tithe, if you please. And the only way to stop paying is to formally excommunicate yourself from the church you've said you belong to, and to get a certificate to prove it.