Italy’s Catholic Church will be forced to pay taxes starting in 2013
after the EU pressured the country’s government to pass a controversial
law stripping the Church of its historic property tax exemption.
The Catholic Church in Italy is excluded from paying taxes on its
land if at least a part of a Church property is used non-commercially –
for instance, a chapel in a bed-and-breakfast.
Last December, after new austerity measures were adopted
in the country, 130,000 Italians signed an online petition urging the
government to strip the Church of its tax exemption.
“It was time that they paid, too, with all the exemptions they’ve had throughout the years,”
Marco Catalano, a 35-year-old shopkeeper in Rome, told the New York
Times in February, adding that he goes to church twice a month. “They
own the most beautiful buildings in downtown Rome, on Italian soil, and
rent them out at market prices. They don’t give them for free or at low
prices for charity.”
Two years ago, the EU began to
investigate whether the tax privileges of some Church properties in
Italy could be considered illegal state aid.
(Via JMG)
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