Form our No good deeds goes unpunished series.
Earlier this year, there were newspaper reports about the obstacles unaccompanied minors faced as they want to play soccer in local clubs.
Soccer federation rules were simple: minors can play if parents or legal guardians sign the application forms. Unaccompanied child refugees don't have parents, so for this group 'legal guardians' needed to sign. After some tussles between child protective services (CPS), which function as legal guardian, and the soccer federation, the federation decided to accept CPS' signature, the issue was resolved and the kids got to play.
Right now, some soccer clubs report a new kind of problem: threats to revoke their non-profit status because of refugees. Some internal revenue offices have sent nastygrams to clubs when they discovered clubs waived membership fees and let refugees play for free.
Hailing from the land of volunteerism and sliding scale payments, this sounds like a perfectly odd and comically German thing.
Unfortunately, we do not have a copy of such a letter to look at the bureaucratic justification.
Clubs generally have a wide variety of membership classes and fee schedules. Membership for kids always costs less than for adults, pensioners typically get a discount, and you can often be a "supporting member" without having to compete, play soccer, or be an active firefighter, to name just a few.
In the current refugee crisis, sports clubs and other associations have also collected and donated clothing and food or donated money to charities that run shelters and offer services.
To us, as well as the clubs who are being threatened by the tax man, letting refugees play for free is simply another version of support.
In a way, this bureaucratic intervention is perceived by sports associations as adding insult to injury because over 1000 gyms have been sequestered by the state to serve as temporary shelters for refugees. Another 500 or so may be taken over for this purpose by the end of the year, according to this article.
At the same time as the state tax agencies threaten clubs, those very same states have increased subsidies to the very same sports clubs to help offset costs clubs incur due to the loss of gyms, such as costs for transportation to other gyms for practice and competitions.
This issue, a small one out of many related to the crisis, will likely find a solution, but the German tax agency tends to be very stubborn. Acknowledging a mistake or an overreach is not something they do often.
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