Italy plans to tax Vatican on commercial properties
The Vatican owns about 20% of Italy’s properties
Related Stories
Italy’s Catholic Church faces an annual multi-million euro bill over government plans to strip it of its tax-exempt status.
Prime Minister Mario Monti has announced the Vatican must pay taxes on non-religious property, from which it previously enjoyed an exemption.
The annual cost could be up to 720m euros ($945m; £598m) according to municipal government bodies.
Italy’s Catholic Church has 110,000 properties, worth about 9bn euros.
It includes shopping centres and a range of residential property.
In December, the government reintroduced a tax paid by anyone who owns land or property in Italy – which the Church does not pay.
But a growing wave of Italians are opposed to what they see as special privileges in the face of a tightening economy.
Following their government’s latest austerity measure package, more than 130,000 people signed an online petition calling for the Church’s tax exempt status to be revoked. Full Story
H/T Kelleigh
LTG
I agree with the Italian government. Surprise, surprise!!! If the church is running commercial businesses, those should contribute to the economy along with other solutions to Italy’s problems.
They’ll probably just ask us to increase what we put in the collection basket.
They should do that in the U.S., and level the playing field for businesses that compete against church businesses. Keep the deduction for the church itself, but for businsses that hide under church protection, they should be exposed and taxed.