The story is not new, it happened years ago in Germany with a famous tennis star called [Steffi Graf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steffi_Graf). She was born in  in Mannheim (West Germany) on 14 June 1969 and  had an impressive tennis career. She started playing tennis at the age of three as her father was an aspiring tennis coach. She started practicing on a normal tennis court when she was four and participated in her very first tournament a year later. 

![Tennis-Champion-Steffi-Graf-In-1990.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmb7N6xpKrSb1RNrGp9B9n6aUKRXjg15m1yT4MxCiCyzvo/Tennis-Champion-Steffi-Graf-In-1990.jpg)
[source](https://www.sportsgalleries.net/beautiful-steffi-graf-hd-images/112/)

I remember her playing and always watched her with pleasure. She was a wonderful player, always humble, no tantrums, just focusing on the task. 

She married a fellow tennis man, [Andre Agassi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Agassi), who's also a respected name in the tennis world.  Despite of her success, her life wasn't a fairy tale.  There's a huge scandal tied to her name that had serious consequences. It's been about money, obviously.

I remember when the news broke that Steffi Graf is leaving the Catholic church, many people have condemned her for this move. She was all over the news and not for the good reasons. There were voices saying that she left the church because the church was asking too much of her income. Many churches set a certain percentage and they sick to it regardless of your income. This seems reasonable for some as that percentage is the same for everyone but in fact when you look at the absolute number you see a different picture. Some end up paying 50 euro, others like Steffi, 5 million or more. 

I'm not against paying an annual fee to the church but don't support this kind of taxing method. I don't see why some people should pay a fortune. People with high income usually donate to church and that's a good thing. But making it mandatory seems a little bit greedy to say the least. 

I had a cousin who worked in Germany for a few years and remember telling me how they are handling these things. At hiring she was asked what religion she is, they noted it in her file and at the first paycheck she ended up with a substantial amount of money withhold as church taxes. So this was not optional but mandatory. When she moved back home she had to pay taxis to the local church as well, regardless of her being away.

What's happened with Steffi Graf we don't know, she said she' leaving the Catholic church for personal reason but money could have been a very personal reason.

>She was accused by German authorities of tax evasion in the early years of her career. In her defense, she stated that her father Peter was her financial manager, and all financial matters relating to her earnings at the time had been under his control. Her father was arrested in August and was sentenced to 45 months in jail. He was eventually released after serving 25 months. Prosecutors dropped their case against Graf in 1997, when she agreed to pay a fine of 1.3 million Deutsche Marks to the government and an unspecified charity. [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steffi_Graf#Personal_life)

This is serious and as you can see, it had serious consequences. I've seen many sports people committing tax fraud to save money. Some did serious jail time for that. 

While researching facts for my post I came across a very ironic  article from July 1997 saying that in fact what happened was Steffi's dad got caught with tax fraud and after they had to pay the money they owed to the state, the church wanted its share as well and that's when she decided to cut ties with the church. According to this article Steffi Graf was ordered by the German courts to pay a total sum of 20m DM which is approximately pounds 6.5m to the German state. According to the article she should have paid the church between 7 - 8%, which is huge in my opinion. Also according to the article, around half a million Germans are leaving the church for the same reason. Who can blame them? I can't. 

I have no idea what her dad did but if the German court said it was tax evasion, then it was tax evasion and one should never do that no matter the circumstances. It was the wrong move. The church should have revised its policy on church taxes in special cases like this. Forcing her to pay a fortune was also wrong!

Her reputation hasn't been damaged I believe and I still think of her as a big tennis star who made history.