Eight per thousand (Italian:otto per mille) is an Italian law under which Italian taxpayers devolve a compulsory 8 ‰ = 0.8% (eightper mille, i.e. per thousand) from their annual incometax return to an organisedreligion recognised by Italy or, alternatively, to a state-runsocial assistance scheme.[1]
On theIRE 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 ‰).
The relations between Italy and the religiousconfessions in its territory can be traced back to theStatuto Albertino of 1848, which applied first to theKingdom of Sardinia and then to theKingdom of Italy. Its first article declared the "Roman Catholic Apostolic religion" the onlystate religion and granted legal toleration to all other religious confessions then present.[2]
Under theLateran treaties of 1929, which were incorporated in the 1948 Constitution of the Italian Republic, the State paid a small monthlysalary, called thecongrua, toCatholic clergymen as compensation for thenationalization of Church properties at the time of theunification of Italy. This ended on 31 December 1986, with the entry into force, as a result of a 1984 agreement between the government and theHoly See of the "eight per thousand" system.
As of 2020 there are 14 possible beneficiaries of the tax:
In addition an agreement has been signed with theJehovah's Witnesses,[16] but it has not yet received parliamentary ratification.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 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 anIslamic organization, despite Italy's population of over 1.4 million Muslims.[17] Issues cited include a lack of a single central authority for the religion,[18] concerns overIslamist extremist organizations being the recipients of funds, and Muslim beliefs onpolygamy, education andwomen's rights that potentially contradict theConstitution.[19][20]
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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.[21][22] 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.[23]
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 theItalian 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):[24]
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).[25][26]
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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.[27] 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.[28] 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 PiedmonteseWaldensians, 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.[29]
