One of Rome’s leading Protestant churches, the Breccia di Roma, is set to take the Italian tax authorities to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) following an unexpected defeat in the Italian Supreme Court.
After Breccia di Roma bought its building in the heart of the capital city it applied to be classed a religious building, which would have exempted it from taxation. But the Tax Agency challenged that ruling, on the grounds that the building lacked the ‘intrinsic features’ of religious buildings, such as altars, images, and statues – clearly based on Roman Catholic conceptions of religious space. The church’s explanation that, as Protestants, the buildings contain no altars because it worships God in spirit and truth, fell on deaf ears. Although two lower courts found in the church’s favour, as they recognised the right of faith communities to design their own spaces according to their own principles, the Supreme Court disagreed.
The ruling means Breccia di Roma will have to pay court costs and back commercial property taxes for five or six years. Furthermore, it will from now on have to pay taxes as if it were a business premises, even though it is categorised as a religious body prohibited from making profits, thus precluding it from claiming ‘business’ related tax deductions. The appeal to the ECHR is therefore immensely significant to the church.
