Local municipalities in Italy ask taxes from religious schools

August 2, 2015

In the past few days in, several municipalities have started asking religious schools to pay taxes for property and local services, despite the resistance of the.

The request of the municipalities results from the sentence of the Italian on July 8, recognising as legitimate the request of the Municipality of  asking religious schools to pay property taxes.

Requests have come from the Municipality of, next to , and from the deputies of (M5S) of the regional counsel of. The first case is of the mayor Luca Pastorino that in last years received several refusals of his requests for payment because of the religious nursery school and retirement home. In the second case, the M5S party asks to the regional government to assure the local administrations of the region regularly apply the sentence of the Supreme Court.

The case on which the Court has ruled was of the religious schools Santo Spirito and Immacolata in Livorno,, to pay over 422,000 in arrears for the period from 2004 to 2009. The request was advanced by the Municipality of Livorno in 2010.

The city reasoned,.

In 2014 the Italian municipal tax discipline has changed from the ICI system to the IMU system by the government. A mean cost per student criterion is used to tax only the schools that receive a fee higher than the mean cost per student fixed by the State. The new law is not retroactive, so the taxes requested in arrears from 2006 to 2009 are under the ICI system.

Minister of Education said a  is needed. Claudio De Vincenti, undersecretary to the prime minister, said.

Undersecretary for Education Mr. Toccafondi says.

Also the president of the Lombardy region,, has reacted by proposing some regional counter-measures to finance private schools.

The secretary general of CEI, , has called the sentence and :.

Italian secularist associations are concerned the Government will modify the law in order to maintain an exception for religious schools. The secularist magazine describe the court's judgement as historic.

The (UAAR) has launched a petition which now has more than 11,000 signatures, asking the government to respect and execute the sentence of the Supreme Court. It is also encouraging citizens to ask for application of the law in their local municipalities.