{"id":467460,"date":"2010-03-24T17:19:01","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T21:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reuters.com\/faithworld\/?p=12615"},"modified":"2010-03-24T17:19:01","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T21:19:01","slug":"tax-dispute-flairs-between-cyprus-gov%e2%80%99t-and-orthodox-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/467460","title":{"rendered":"Tax dispute flairs between Cyprus gov\u2019t and Orthodox Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12616\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 381px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12616\" title=\"cyprus church\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.reuters.com\/faithworld\/files\/2010\/03\/cyprus-church.jpg\" alt=\"cyprus church\" width=\"371\" height=\"256\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Orthodox church in Limassol, Cyprus, 20 Nov 2007\/Ewa Dryjanska<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A furious dispute has erupted in Cyprus after the ruling communists  set their sights on the island&#8217;s wealthy Orthodox Church of Cyprus to help plug a runaway  deficit. The island&#8217;s government says it wants to start a dialogue  with the Church regarding the millions it says the church  owes in unpaid taxes.<\/p>\n<p>The church says it does not owe a penny.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We are not tax dodgers,&#8221;<\/em> said Archbishop Chrysostomos, the  prelate of the ancient church which traces its roots to some of the  earliest followers of Jesus. The church has broad business interests  ranging from a bank to a brewery.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/in.reuters.com\/article\/worldNews\/idINIndia-47188920100324?sp=true\">Read the whole story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This echoes recent moves in Greece, where the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.reuters.com\/faithworld\/2010\/03\/17\/greek-orthodox-bishop-denounces-new-taxes-on-church-as-hostile\/\">government has decided<\/a> to tax bequests and revenues from the Greek Orthodox Church&#8217;s property to help tackle a 300 billion euro ($409.9 billion) debt  pile. The  Church, in Greece as in Cyprus one of the country\u2019s biggest owners of prime   real estate, has until now been largely exempt from taxes even though   the state pays priests\u2019 salaries.<\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/RTRFaithWorld\"><span style=\"color: #005a84;\">Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at  RTRFaithWorld<\/span><\/a><\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Orthodox church in Limassol, Cyprus, 20 Nov 2007\/Ewa Dryjanska A furious dispute has erupted in Cyprus after the ruling communists set their sights on the island&#8217;s wealthy Orthodox Church of Cyprus to help plug a runaway deficit. The island&#8217;s government says it wants to start a dialogue with the Church regarding the millions it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6305,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}