The Catholic Church in Italy benefits from real estate tax breaks

The European Commission has asked Italy for information about tax breaks it gives to the Roman Catholic Church on income from property, after receiving complaints that they amount to illegal state aid. "We have addressed the Italian authorities and asked them for information about this. We are talking about certain tax concessions for the Catholic Church in Italy," Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd told a news briefing on Tuesday. If the Commission opened an official probe and found the Church received aid illegally, it would be up to the Italian authorities to recover the money, Todd said.