As far as I understand the payments Germany still makes are for the properties it "bought" from the churches when the separation between church and state was de

As far as I understand the payments Germany still makes are for the properties it "bought" from the churches when the separation between church and state was declared. There have been plans to repay the remaining sum in one big payment, but those have been around for probably just as long as the agreement itself. The "church tax" is collected independently from that and it is a "paid" service the state offers to any public organization that falls into the same broad legal definition used for churches. As far as I understand the state actually makes a profit from the cut it keeps.