Italian austerity drive forces Vatican to pay more property tax
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Vatican City - The Vatican said Thursday it had to pay an extra 5 million euros (6.5 million dollars) in property tax last year as a result of austerity measures introduced in Italy.
Under pressure from the European Union, the Italian government abolished tax breaks for profit-making church-owned businesses like hospitals and hostels, which had enjoyed exemptions reserved for non-profit establishments.
"The new property taxes (...) resulted in an increase in expenditure of 5 million euros compared to previous figures," the Vatican said.
The figure was nevertheless much lower than the Italian government had anticipated.
The treasury had previously expected to receive an extra 100 million euros. But newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano recently reported that the prediction was too optimistic, since the new law still had too many loopholes.
Presenting its accounts for 2012, the Vatican said it had posted a profit of 2.2 million euros for the Holy See - the governing body of the Catholic Church - and a profit of 23 million euros for its administration, up more than 1 million euros compared with 2011.
Charity donations to the pope - the so-called Peter's Pence - fell from 69.7 million to 65.9 million dollars. The papal office also received 50 million euros from the Vatican's scandal-tainted bank, the Institute of Religious Works (IOR).
The cardinals who approved the accounts "have urged a necessary reform" to cut costs and have called for a "more careful planning of the activities of all administrations," the Vatican said.//DPA
