State unlawfully stripped Hungarian church from a lot of money?

The Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship plans to file a lawsuit for compensation against the Hungarian state claiming that the fellowship had been unlawfully stripped of its eligibility for income tax donations between 2015 and 2020, the church’s leader said on Friday.

Gábor Iványi said in a statement that the fellowship wants the state to pay the amount lost as a result of a decision to withdraw its technical number (assigned by the tax authority to recognized churches) which had made them eligible for taxpayers’ donations. The money would have been used to help the fellowship carry out its service caring for 20,000 individuals in need and operate dozens of its institutions, the statement added.

Most recently, nearly 52,000 individuals donated 1 percent of their income tax to the church, making it the fifth largest recipient among Hungarian churches, Ivanyi said. He also said that starting from next week, the fellowship will collect declarations at several locations in Budapest from individuals who would have offered their tax donation to it between 2015 and 2020 if this had been possible.