Italian Constitutional Court, N. 20/2025, 29 January 2025

Exemption regime from Municipal property tax (ICI) used for religious or cult purposes and partly for other purposes

Art. 7 Italian Constitution
Art. 117 Italian Constitution
Art. 7, co. 3, Concordat between Italy and the Holy See (revised on 18/02/1984)

1. The constitutional base of international obligations arising from Church-State relations is to be found in Article 7 of the Constitution and not in the reference made by Article 117 of the Constitution, which is instead useful for the entry of unqualified international norms arising from treaties into Italian law.

2. Unlike ICI, the exemption regime subsequently introduced by IMU makes the recognition of the tax relief for ecclesiastical buildings of mixed use conditional on the cadastral division of the relevant areas. This regulatory framework, moreover, was deemed compatible with EU law, making tax opacities impossible and not distorting the competition rules of the single market.