The European Court of Justice on
Tuesday ordered Italy to recover ICI property tax not paid by
the Catholic Church.
The ruling quashed a 2012 decision by the European Commission
and an EU court sentence of 2016 that stated "the impossibility
of recovering the aid because of organisational difficulties"
with respect to non-commercial bodies like schools, clinics and
hotels.
The ECJ judges said these circumstances constituted "mere
internal difficulties in Italy".
They rejected, however, an appeal on another property tax,
IMU.
The heads of Rome's Montessori School, which filed the appeal
against the exemption for the Church's non-commercial bodies,
told ANSA "we're very happy, it has been a long battle, but in
the end David has beaten Goliath".
They said "we waged this battle representing non-religious
and democratic businesses which wanted to fight the privileges
which distorted and still distort the country's economic life",
said the directors of the school which has some 150 students in
Rome's Balduina district.
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