EU Court Says Bloc Wrong To Allow Italy Church Tax Write-offs

Europe's top court ruled Tuesday the European Commission was wrong to allow Italy to have written off potentially billions of euros in taxes on Church property.

Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Nov, 2018 ) :Europe's top court ruled Tuesday the European Commission was wrong to allow Italy to have written off potentially billions of Euros in taxes on Church property.

In 2012, the EU executive ruled that Italy's policy of not imposing municipal tax on Church-owned schools and boarding houses amounted to illegal state aid.

But the Commission also decided not to order Rome to recover the unpaid tax, deeming this impossible, a decision now rejected by the European Court of Justice.

Brussels, the court ruled, "should also have considered whether there were alternative methods that would allow recovery, even if only partial, of the aid.

"In the absence of such an analysis, the Commission failed to show that it was absolutely impossible to recover the" tax, the ruling declared.

The case had been brought by a private Montessori network school and by the owner of a bed and breakfast who faced competition from Catholic Church enterprises.

The complainants successfully argued it was unfair that the Church was using buildings exempt from the municipal property taxes that were in place until January 2012.