Taxes on real estate, the EU to Italy: "Recover the money from the exemptions granted to the Church"
Brussels ready to order Rome to collect the sums not paid between 2006 and 2011 relating to ecclesiastical-owned buildings that carry out economic activities
(Handle)
"Italy must recover the aid granted in the ICI tax exemption between 2006 and 2011, if it concerns activities that have an economic nature, even when carried out by non-commercial entities such as the Church".
This is what the European Union is ready to enjoin on the government in Rome, explaining, through a spokesman: «The entities that carry out non-economic activities such as strictly religious ones, will not be affected by the order to recover state aid. However, when these activities are of an economic nature, the fact that they are carried out by non-commercial entities does not preclude the EU rules on state aid".
Church house tax exemptions are a vexata quaestio in Italian politics. For many, in fact, they should not exist - just as Brussels believes - when they concern ecclesiastical properties which, however, carry out paid activities, such as, for example, those that provide accommodation for pilgrims and tourists.
(Unioneonline/lf)
