Eight per thousand () is an Italian law under which Italian taxpayers devolve a compulsory 8 ‰ = 0.8% (eight ''

per mille The phrase per mille () indicates parts per thousand. The associated symbol is , similar to a per cent sign but with an extra zero in the division (mathematics), divisor. Major dictionaries do not agree on the spelling, giving other options o ...

'', i.e. per thousand) from their annual income

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

return to an organised

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

recognised by Italy or, alternatively, to a state-run social assistance scheme. On the IRE form, people optionally declare a recipient. If they do not, the law stipulates that this undeclared amount be distributed among the normal recipients of such taxes in proportion to what they have already received from explicit declarations. In the period from 1990 to 2007, 42.7% expressed a choice, on average. A similar scheme has been introduced in 2006 to fund entities that carry out socially relevant activities (for example, non-profit, scientific research) with five per thousand (5 ‰).

History

The relations between Italy and the religious confessions in its territory can be traced back to the Statuto Albertino of 1848, which applied first to the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica among other names, was a State (polity), country in Southern Europe from the late 13th until the mid-19th century, and from 1297 to 1768 for the Corsican part of ...

and then to the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...

. Its first article declared the "Roman Catholic Apostolic religion" the only state religion and granted legal toleration to all other religious confessions then present. Under the

Lateran treaties The Lateran Treaty (; ) was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between Italy under Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to settle the long-standing Roman question. The treaty and as ...

of 1929, which were incorporated in the 1948 Constitution of the Italian Republic, the State paid a small monthly

salary A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. ...

, called the ''congrua'', to

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

clergymen as compensation for the

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with p ...

of Church properties at the time of the

unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century Political movement, political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, annexation of List of historic states of ...

. This ended on 31 December 1986, with the entry into force, as a result of a 1984 agreement between the government and the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

of the "eight per thousand" system.

Current status

As of 2020 there are 14 possible beneficiaries of the tax: * The State itself *

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

* Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches * Italian Union of Seventh-day Adventist Christian Churches * Assemblies of God in Italy * Union of Italian Jewish Communities *

Lutheran Evangelical Church in Italy The Lutheran Evangelical Church in Italy (, , abbreviated CELI or ELKI) is a Protestant denomination in the Lutheran tradition in Italy. Founded in 1949, the CELI/ELKI, which includes both German- and Italian-speaking communities, is a member o ...

* Baptist Evangelical Christian Union of Italy * Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy * Apostolic Church in Italy * Italian Buddhist Union * Italian Hindu Union * Soka Gakkai Italian Buddhist Institute *

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

In addition an agreement has been signed with the

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...

, but it has not yet received parliamentary ratification.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

, in spite of having made an agreement on 4 April 2007, ratified by Law 127 of 30 July 2012, is refusing to participate in the division of the funds. At present it is not possible to designate an

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ic organization, despite Italy's population of over 1.4 million Muslims. Issues cited include a lack of a single central authority for the religion, concerns over Islamist extremist organizations being the recipients of funds, and Muslim beliefs on

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

, education and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

that potentially contradict the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

Utilisation

Although the 1985 law on the matter declared that the state's portion of the proceeds was to be devoted to extraordinary expenses, such as world hunger, natural disasters and refugees, since 2004 a large proportion is employed for general purposes. In 2004, €80 million out of a total of about €100 million were thus employed, leading to criticism of the fact that part of it was used to finance the Italian military mission in Iraq. Because of its financial situation in 2011, the government decided to utilize the entire sum of about €145 million for purposes other than those indicated in the 1985 law: for instance, €57,277,063 were spent on improving the prison infrastructure. The purposes for which the religious groups may use their portions are laid down in the agreements entered into with the government. In the case of the Catholic Church, the purposes are specified in article 48 of the 1985 law: "worship needs of the people, support of the clergy, charitable activities in favour of Italian society and the Third World". Each year the Italian Episcopal Conference publishes the proportions it assigns under various headings. Thus at its meeting in May 2012 it approved the following distribution (in thousands of euros): *1,148,076 Total amount received (100.0%) *479,226 Worship and pastoral work (41.7%) **156,000 To the dioceses (for worship and pastoral work) (13.6%) **190,000 Buildings for worship (16.5%) ***125,000 New buildings for worship (10.9%) ***65,000 Safeguarding cultural property of the Church (5.7%) **64,226 Fund for catechesis and Christian education (5.6%) **12,000 Regional ecclesiastical tribunals (1.0%) **57,000 Needs of national importance (5.0%) *255,000 Charitable activities (22.2%) **125,000 To the dioceses (for charity) (10.9%) **85,000 Third World (7.4%) **45,000 Needs of national importance (3.9%) *363,850 Financial support of the clergy (31.7%) *50,000 Reserve for future use for worship, pastoral work and charity (4.4%) The financial support for the clergy brings their salary up to a certain level, such as €852.93 a month for a priest at the beginning of his service, and €1,308.57 a month for a bishop at the maximum of his biennial increments (2007 figures).

Choices expressed by taxpayers

For the first fifteen years of the system there was a gradual increase of the percentage of those who chose their contributions to go to the Catholic Church and a corresponding diminution of those who chose the State as beneficiary. Of those who exercised a choice, 76.17% opted for the Catholic Church in 1990, increasing to 89.81% in 2004 and falling to 86.05% in 2006 and 85.01% in 2007. Since in 2007, for instance, only 43.50% of those who declared their incomes expressed a choice, those who did indicate the Catholic Church as beneficiary were less than 37% of the taxpayers, a figure much lower than the proportion of Italians who declare themselves Catholics, which corresponded rather to the proportion opting for the Church among those who did indicate a choice. Declarations in favour of the State, which were 22.31% in 1990, dropped to their lowest ever level of 7.60% in 2005, recovering later and reaching 11.95% in 2007. The eight-per-thousand tax has significantly helped the Piedmontese

Waldensians The Waldensians, also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi, or Vaudois, are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the Poor of Lyon in the l ...

, a Protestant community whose origins predate the Reformation, the Waldensians have only about 25,000 enlisted members but about 412,000 Italians support them and their charitable works.2013 Gemeinsame Projektförderung der Waldenser mit dem GAW
Gustavus Adolphus Union website 2013

References

External links