Eight per thousand ( it, otto per mille) is an Italian law under which Italian taxpayers devolve a compulsory 8 ‰ = 0.8% (eight per mil, i.e. per thousand) from their annual income

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

return to an organised

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

recognised by Italy or, alternatively, to a state-run

social assistance Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

scheme. On the

IRE Ire or IRE may refer to: Ire * Extreme anger; intense fury * Irē, the Livonian name for Mazirbe, Latvia * A town in Oye, Nigeria * ''Ire'' (album), a 2015 album by the Australian metalcore band Parkway Drive * Ire (Iliad), a town mentioned in ...

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 The Statuto Albertino (English: ''Albertine Statute'') was the constitution granted by King Charles Albert of Sardinia to the Kingdom of Sardinia on 4 March 1848 and written in Italian and French. The Statute later became the constitution of t ...

of 1848, which applied first to the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

and then to the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...

. 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 ( it, Patti Lateranensi; la, Pacta Lateranensia) was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between the Kingdom of Italy under King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to settle t ...

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. F ...

, called the ''congrua'', to

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

clergymen as compensation for the nationalization of Church properties at the time of the

unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

. 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 ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

of the "eight per thousand" system.

Current status

As of 2015 there are 12 possible beneficiaries of the tax: * The State itself *

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches The Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches ( it, Unione delle Chiese Metodiste e Valdesi) is an Italian united Protestant denomination. It was founded in 1975 upon the union of the Waldensian Evangelical Church (a Calvinist church with pre ...

* Seventh-day Adventist Church *

Assemblies of God in Italy The Assemblies of God in Italy ( it, Assemblee di Dio in Italia, ADI), whose full name is Evangelical Christian Churches Assemblies of God in Italy (''Chiese Cristiane Evangeliche Assemblee di Dio in Italia''), is a fellowship of evangelical and Pen ...

Union of Italian Jewish Communities The Union of Italian Jewish Communities (Italian: ''Unione delle comunità ebraiche italiane'', UCEI) is a national association that represents over twenty Jewish community associations in Italy. It was founded in 1911 as the ''Comitato delle un ...

Lutheran Evangelical Church in Italy The Lutheran Evangelical Church in Italy ( it, Chiesa Evangelica Luterana in Italia, german: Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Italien, abbreviated CELI or ELKI) is a Protestant denomination in the Lutheran tradition in Italy. Founded in 1949, th ...

* Baptist Evangelical Christian Union of Italy *

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy (and Malta from until the creation of the Exarchate of Malta in 2021), officially the Sacred Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Exarchate of Southern Europe ( it, Sacra Arcidiocesi Ortodossa d'Italia ed Esar ...

* Apostolic Church in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

* Italian Buddhist Union * Italian Hindu Union In addition an agreement has been signed with the Jehovah's Witnesses, but it has not yet received parliamentary ratification. In 2015, an agreement was signed with the

Soka Gakkai Italian Buddhist Institute The Soka Gakkai Italian Buddhist Institute ( it, Istituto Buddista Italiano Soka Gakkai) is the Italian branch of the Soka Gakkai International Nichiren Buddhist organisation. The Soka Gakkai Italian Buddhist Institute is popularly known by the acro ...

, which was approved by law on June 28, 2016.

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 nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

, 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 Islamic 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 Crimes 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, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...

, education and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and 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 centuries. In some countries, ...

that potentially contradict the

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

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 The Italian Episcopal Conference ( it, Conferenza Episcopale Italiana) or CEI is the episcopal conference of the Italian bishops of the Catholic Church, the official assembly of the bishops in Italy. The conference was founded in 1971 and carrie ...

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 Men of Lyon" in ...

, 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