The financial crisis in Italy has made indulging religious economic privilege intolerable. 130,000 people signed a petition as part of making this happen:
Prime Minister Mario Monti has announced the Vatican must pay taxes on non-religious property, from which it previously enjoyed an exemption.
The annual cost could be up to 720m euros ($945m; £598m) according to municipal government bodies.
Italy’s Catholic Church has 110,000 properties, worth about 9bn euros.
It includes shopping centres and a range of residential property.
In December, the government reintroduced a tax paid by anyone who owns land or property in Italy – which the Church does not pay.
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UPDATE: I changed the title from its original to make it clearer, on advice from a comment below.
