How to test fairness of church tax

COMMENTS on this page yesterday gave a flavour of the debate that is provoked whenever this newspaper carries anything on funding the parish churches, a topic that has been given extra weight now it has been disclosed that the congregations themselves have committed to remitting £646,998 to the Diocese of Winchester this year.

That's approaching an average of £65,000 per parish while work carried out by the committee reviewing this indicates that over a 10-year period to 2011, repairs and maintenance to parish churches and rectories was £39,000 a year.

In other words, the congregations themselves are more than capable of looking after their own churches, just the same as Methodists, Catholics and other faiths do.

The Church of England might argue that the money they remit – the parish share – enables the church to carry out its ministry but it is difficult to see why Guernsey ratepayers should support the Diocese of Winchester in this way, especially given the talk of the islands splitting from it.

These figures also indicate that the long-term average spend on rectories is £7,800, which is far more than the ratepayers themselves can afford to invest in their own properties.

While the Parochial and Ecclesiastical Rates Review Committee continues to dither over this, it is clear that the Church, through the Loi Relative à La Taxation Paroissiale 1923, benefits substantially from its privileged position.

If that privilege was ever justified, it certainly is not now and must end.

Supporters of the status quo – and Perrc found them to be a formidable lobby group – argue that it is a democratic way of preserving parish and island ancient monuments since ratepayers vote annually on whether to maintain church and rectory or not.

The point, however, is that if something is wrong in principle it has to be rectified and the consequences of that dealt with separately.

And if a church tax is fair and equitable, it can be put to the test.

Simply ask your parish whether the ratepayers are willing and able to provide grace-and-favour accommodation and churches for all the other religions within its boundaries.