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“In order to avoid the tax in Germany, you need to go to the church you belong to and ask to be removed from membership. You have to actually and personally renounce membership in the Catholic Church.”

Then perhaps this statement from the bishop's decree is misunderstood:

“Whoever declares their withdrawal for whatever reason before the responsible civil authritoy always violates their duty to preserve a link with the church, as well as their duty to make a financial contribution so the church can fulfill its tasks.” (Catholic News Service)

What does “withdrawal for whatever reason before the responsible civil authritoy....” mean?

It means for the tax purposes filling out a form for the state.

“There it is, read with your own eyes: the removal of one’s name from a tax register simply to avoid paying the religious tax is explicitly mentioned as not being sufficient for formal defection from the Catholic faith.

Then the bishops must be in error in their statements. Or the actual practice doesn't match the above. OR the term, “formal defection” means something other than “withdrawal”

Well, this situation is pretty convoluted, and I'm neither a German jurist nor a canon lawyer. There's a good canon law blog at Ed Peters Link; he says he has to read the actual German court ruling, the German Bishops' decree, and the text of the Roman approval, before commenting on how this smash-up is going to sort out.

I'm bugged when people just read BBC or Reuters and never go further into the real story. It's like running with the New York Times' Paul Krugman's comments on the Tea Party.

There could be fault within any or all the parties involved in this Church Tax controversy (church or state, German or Roman) but I will not rush to judgment before I hear from somebody who actually knows.

The most reliable people aren't necesarily Catholic clergy. I look to honest, knowledgeable lay people whose jobs are not tied to some clerical bureaucracy like the USCCB

Phil Lawler and Jeff Mirus (Catholic World News), John Allen (despite his affiliation with the ugh-NCR, he's one of the best); Ed Peters on Canon Law.