Rome
Pope to pay up: Italy is trying to cure its financial ills by closing tax loopholes—even for the Vatican. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti announced last week that the Catholic Church would have to pay taxes on all its nonreligious commercial property. The Vatican owns more than 100,000 properties in Italy, from shopping centers to apartment complexes, and the windfall for the state could be close to $1 billion a year. Churches are still exempt, but a church that also runs a business, such as a hostel or café, will pay property tax for that part of its property. Monti’s announcement was popular in Italy, which is officially in a recession. After a drastic austerity package that passed in December raised taxes and cut benefits, 130,000 people signed an online petition calling for the church to pay taxes.
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