Church in Italy losing tax funds

Since the 1980s, the main source of revenue for Italy’s Catholic Church has been what’s called the “8×1000,” or the “eight per thousand,” meaning a share of everyone’s personal income tax the state distributes between itself and a charitable entity of the taxpayer’s choosing. The amount of the 8×1000 designated to the Catholic Church has been in steady decline for years and fell to an all-time low in 2020, dropping from 31.80 percent to 29.03 percent, according to a recent report from the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance. ^[1]