Well, natives don't get automatically clobbered either. The only automatic is that the child follows the religion marked for the mother if nothing else is given. But otherwise, if one doesn't belong to the EvLut or Orthodox church then one doesn't pay the church tax, and vice versa.penelope wrote:Could be true that foreigners don't get clobbered automatically. It might have something to do with Bib Brother Master Data Base... if you declared uourself as a Jehovah's Witness or Catholic or Buddhist or whatever when you registered as resident then I guess they already have the info.
If you are register into either and don't want to pay the church tax then all one has to do is fill in the "I want to leave the church" paper at a magistrate or your church registry office (or here: http://www.eroakirkosta.fi/). But if you do want to belong to the EvLut or the Orthodox church then you pay the tax, there is no way to opt out, other than (if I Googled right) if you live abroad.