The Patriarch of Serbia, His Holiness Porfirije, this week dismissed criticism by some quarters in the southeast European country claiming that the Church pays no taxes to the state and receives preferential treatment.
In a post on social media, His Holiness underlined that neither the Church nor is clergymen are exempted from the Republic of Serbia’s tax system.
The Serbian Patriarch emphasized that “…taxes and contributions taken from clerics’ and other Church employees’ salaries are paid in full and without interruption. There is no law that excludes the Church from the tax system, even if this is foreseen in European laws allowing for charitable activities by religious communities. The only exception is that the Church retains the right of rebate of taxes paid for 12 legally stipulated products closely related with worship.”