Catholic Church in Italy gets £1 billion from tax returns
by Hannah Tooley
The Catholic Church in Italy has received almost £1bn from income tax-returns.
The money came in via a system that sends 0.8% of tax payments to charity or to religious institutions.
According to Catholic World News tax payers can decide what good cause they want to give a portion of their income to, usually tax payers do not decide between the religious bodies or charities.
The law says that 0.8% of taxes collected from those who do not make a choice should be divided up between the institutions.
In 2012 almost 55% of taxpayers did not selection an option.
Some income will make its way to the Vatican in Rome, because bishops are obligated to give some funds to the Holy See.
The Vatican gets money each year from its real estate, diocesan contributions and its investments.
The Catholic Church in Germany is expected to make the most from this system, last year it made around £4.5bn from the tax system.
Other countries that use this system include Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Austria and Denmark, some cantons in Switzerland also have a smaller-scale version.
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