Madrid, Spain, Mar 4, 2021 / 16:18 pm
During the 2020 Income Declaration Campaign in Spain, 7,297,646 taxpayers chose to allocate 0.7% of their taxes to the needs of the Church, 106,259 more than the previous year.
An agreement between the Church and the Spanish state allows taxpayers freely to decide whether to allocate that percentage of their taxes to the Church or for other purposes, an option popularly known as "checking the box for the Church" when filing income taxes.
This option does not affect the taxpayer, since contributing to the Church doesn't mean that more tax is paid or there is less of a refund.
However, for the Church checking that box is very important, since through the contributions of the taxpayers, "the immense work of the Church is sustained. To continue helping in this pandemic crisis, the Church needs everyone's collaboration more than ever," the Spanish Bishops' Conference said in a statement.