Income tax: the Catholic Church receives over 1 billion from the ‘8 per thousand’ scheme. The State’s share rises
The Catholic Church accounts for 67.75 per cent of the funds. The allocation for the State has increased by 376 million
Key points
Out of a total of 1.6 billion from the ‘eight per thousand’ IRPEF levy, allocated in 2026 and relating to 2022, the Catholic Church receives the lion’s share of the funds, just over 1 billion (equivalent to 67.75 per cent). Contributions allocated to the State are on the rise, exceeding 426 million euros (26.58 per cent). This is according to data released by the Finance Department of the Ministry of the Economy.
More options for the State
After the Catholic Church, the second most popular choice among taxpayers is to donate to the State (26.58 per cent), totalling 426,298,445 euros – an increase of 376 million euros compared with last year.
Next up: the Waldensian Evangelical Church and the Italian Buddhist Union
In third place (2.90%) is the Waldensian Evangelical Church, which received 46,486,901 euros. In fourth place is the Italian Buddhist Union, with 1.09% of the votes, totalling 17,460,240 euros.
The breakdown between stated and unstated preferences
Of the total contributions allocated to the Catholic Church and out of 11.3 million valid choices made, more than 433 million euros come directly from the choices made, whilst the remaining 629 million come from the allocation mechanism for unspecified choices. Similarly, for the State, the figures are 172 million and over 253 million respectively. Of the more than 4.5 million taxpayers who opted to allocate the ‘eight per thousand’ to the State, over 1 million expressed a preference for school building projects, followed by disaster relief, with 966,000 taxpayers ticking that box. 403,000 taxpayers opted for the fight against world hunger, whilst more than 378,000 chose cultural heritage. Finally, the box for refugee assistance was selected by 184,000 taxpayers.
Provisional income data for 2023 and 2024
As regards the provisional figures for 2023 and 2024, the proportion of the ‘eight per thousand’ allocation going to the State is set to rise further, reaching 27.73 per cent in the 2027 allocations and 28.66 per cent in those for 2028. By contrast, the share allocated to the Catholic Church is set to fall slightly: to 66.16 per cent in the 2027 allocations and to 65.06 per cent in 2028. The Waldensian Church is also seeing a decline, currently standing at 2.88 per cent in 2027 and 2.78 per cent in 2028.
