Only two things are certain: death and taxes. In Switzerland, this is also true for companies. Nothing new here. Also not surprising for a highly efficient and organized country, Switzerland’s churches are financed via Church tax (a more apt name would be ‘God Tax’).

An interesting wrinkle is that this tax also applies to companies. This is interesting because – perhaps to my superficial understanding – taxes are levied to pay for some kind of communal service: say roads, or infrastructure in general. The service that Churches provide are, well, special. They provide a service for your soul: redemption, but only if you believe that. So anyone in Switzerland can refuse to pay Church tax on grounds that they don’t believe in gods.

Unlike companies – they are forced to pay Church tax no matter what. Which is no small matter: the taxes collected from companies in the Canton Grisons (Graubünden), for example, make up 90% of the Catholic church’s total income. Now, nobody has ever accused a company of having a soul, or of being religious. The service rendered to companies in return for Church tax is, therefore, zero. Or when was the last time you shared a pew with a company?

And so, in swiss democratic tradition, the people of Grisons will vote on February 9th to decide if this taxation law is going to be changed. Not very surprisingly, the church is opposing the proposal, and is campaigning heavily against it – with a budget ten times (almost literally: $110’00 vs. $15’000) of that from the proponents. You’d not be the first to note a ‘David vs. Goliath’ situation.

In church tradition, the campaign is funded via Church tax. This means that in this case, the companies are forced to fund a campaign against their own interest. By the church. Whose services they can’t, by definition, use.

Because the Church, lest we forget, has the moral high ground.