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Hi John,
This church is called Cobas (short of) Church of body and Soul.
He initially created this church, to be able to organize meetings/parties etc.. during the covid period, because they noticed that that churches were asked if they also wanted to close during the lock downs. Here the government was not allowed to close them. And this made them think. So now they found a way to protect them against forced mandates like lock-downs and injections etc.. And this idea growled and now they are setting up there first village, with i believe 20 houses. Where the ground is owned by the church and the house by the family who buys it. Its not like the ringing cederbooks, based on love and nature. But has similarities, like the enteral ownership/usership. everyhouse has there own garden, but joint restaurant, swimingpool etc.. And in protugal, they dont pay tax on the property and income of the church. Individuals do pay tax off course if they work externally. So like you write if its only to avoid tax, it will not work. But to protect your way of living, the domain, for you and your further family, i do think it will. And its even more spiritual then the church of this guy. And if manage to create together with others a village, the giving system between families will not be taxed, so kind of tax free living at the end anyway.
What they did wit this village. They bought 18hectare of land, and got the permits for building the houses on it, with all the things around it. They sell the properties for if im correct 50k euors and the government pays via a tourist development subsidy an other 50k euros, and if they want a bigger house then the standard version, they pay more offcourse. They get for this, the house, the ready made infrastructure and the amenities created in the village, so totally different then the kins-domain/ eco villages. This is roughly what they are doing, more details are on there site i suppose.
But when i heard of this and talked to him, i thought this is fitting perfectly with the eco-villages of with kins domains. And what he told, is that because of European laws, if its works in one country, it works in all countries of Europe. Where i still need to check this, because churches in Portugal has similar protection as in Holland.
But anyway, im open for discussion, opinions and ideas.
Greetings Gerton
