Catholic Jizya?
It's a European thing. Many of these countries the government collects a tax and gives it to the local church of whatever religion you belong to.
First off, it would be the polar opposite of a Catholic jizya, since in a jizya it's the non-believers, not the faithful of the dominant religion, that get taxed. Specifically, it's the non-Muslims who pay the jizya to the Muslim state.
Read a better explanation, please (Jimmy Akin Link)
If people officially announce ---for the record, to the government --- that they have left the Catholic Church, why would they be demanding Sacraments? Is the Church legally required to offer sacraments to non-Catholics now?
Very recently FReepers were supporting that priest in the Archdiocese of Washington who refused Holy Communion to a woman who was a practicing lesbian and Buddhist. But in this case the Catholic Church is supposed to say, "That's OK, Catholic Sacraments are a public utility now"?
The complicating factor is that in the 19th century, the German state seized a lot of buildings and property from various churches, and then instituted this form of funding as a kind of reimbursement. It's not the sort of thing that's done in the USA --- for which I'm glad, because under our Constitution it would be considered "excessive entanglement" --- but it's a voluntary collection from people who voluntarily identify as Catholics. Same for Lutherans, or whatever church they want to designate.
It's certainly no question of money. It is contrary to Canon Law to charge for a Sacrament, or deny any person a Sacrament on account of money. It is a question of having made a public rejection of Catholicism.
To make my own position clear, I think the Church Tax has had a really bad effect on German churches (Catholic as well as those rooted in the Reformation). It's made the German clergy rich, proud,and unconcerned that their churches are emptying as people fall away from the Faith...as long as they pay the tax. Although the history and the intentions were understandable (especially in terms of reimbursing churches whose properties were stolen by the German State and, earlier, by the various German principalities) the present impact is, as I see it, deeply corrupting.