The 8, 5 and 2 Per Mille: How to Allocate a Share of Your Italian Income Tax

Introduction

Every year, millions of Italian taxpayers tick a few boxes on their return that send a slice of the income tax they already owe to a church, a charity, a research lab, or a political party. They pay nothing extra to do it. If they skip the boxes, the State usually keeps the money instead.

Those boxes are the 8, 5 and 2 per mille (otto, cinque and due per mille) — three small shares of your IRPEF, Italy's personal income tax. They are not surcharges, and they are not donations in the everyday sense. They simply decide who receives a portion of tax you are paying anyway.

Plenty of foreigners filing in Italy for the first time see these sections and assume they are an additional cost. They are not. This guide explains what each allocation is, who can receive it, how to make the choice, and — just as important — what happens to your share if you leave the boxes empty.

What the 8, 5 and 2 Per Mille Actually Are

All three allocations share the same logic: you redirect a fixed percentage of your IRPEF, and the Treasury foregoes that amount in favour of the recipient you name. A few features apply across the board:

• They are optional and independent. You can make any, all, or none of the three choices, and you do so fresh each year.
• They never raise your liability. Designating a recipient does not add a euro to what you owe — the percentage is carved out of tax already due.
• They are made on your tax return. The choices live on the Modello 730 or Modello Redditi PF, or on the dedicated allocation form for people who do not file a full return.
• Default rules differ. If you make no choice, what happens to your share depends on which allocation you skipped — and the 8 per mille works very differently from the other two.

One practical point: the percentages are calculated on your IRPEF, not on your gross income. A modest tax bill means a modest share — but it costs you nothing to direct it.

The 8 Per Mille (8‰): 0.8% to the State or a Religious Body

The 8 per mille is the oldest and best-known of the three. It lets you assign 0.8% of your income tax either to the Italian State, for a set of designated public causes, or to one religious denomination that the Italian State formally recognises.

Who Can Receive It

You pick one recipient. The choice is between the Italian State and a single eligible religious denomination. The denominations currently listed on the return include:

• Catholic Church
• Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches
• Italian Union of Seventh-day Adventist Christian Churches
• Assemblies of God in Italy
• Union of the Italian Jewish Communities
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy
• Christian Evangelical Baptist Union of Italy
• Sacred Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Exarchate for Southern Europe
• Apostolic Church in Italy
• Italian Buddhist Union
• Italian Hindu Union
• Italian Buddhist Institute Soka Gakkai
• "Church of England" Association in Italy

The form has each denomination pre-printed, so you do not need to enter a tax code — you simply sign in the relevant box.

If You Choose the State: Earmarking a Purpose

When you designate the Stato (State), you can optionally steer the money toward a specific cause by entering a code from 1 to 6:

• 1 — World hunger and humanitarian aid
• 2 — Natural disasters (relief and prevention)
• 3 — Public school building
• 4 — Assistance to refugees and unaccompanied minors
• 5 — Restoration of cultural heritage
• 6 — Prevention and recovery from addiction

If you sign for the State but leave the code blank, the government spreads your share across all of these official purposes.

What Happens If You Leave the 8‰ Blank

Here is where the 8 per mille is unique. If you express no preference, your share is not simply absorbed into the general budget. Instead, it is distributed among all eligible beneficiaries in proportion to the choices made by taxpayers nationwide. In practice, the State and the denominations that collect the most expressed preferences also receive the largest share of the undesignated funds. Your share is allocated either way — the only question is whether you, or everyone else, decides where it lands.

The 5 Per Mille (5‰): 0.5% for Nonprofits, Research and Local Causes

The 5 per mille channels 0.5% of your IRPEF toward civil society rather than religious or public institutions. It is the mechanism for supporting charities, research, sport, and local social programmes.

Who Can Receive It

The sectors currently eligible for the 5 per mille include:

• Third-sector nonprofits — volunteer organisations, social promotion associations, and social cooperatives entered in the Registro Unico Nazionale del Terzo Settore (RUNTS)
• Scientific research foundations and universities
• Health and medical research bodies
• Organisations that protect and promote cultural and landscape heritage
• Amateur sports associations on the national register
• Your own comune (municipality), for its social projects
• Bodies that manage protected natural areas

How to Make Your 5‰ Choice

Sign the box for the sector you want to support. You can go a step further and write the codice fiscale (tax code) of a specific organisation, so your contribution goes straight to it. If you sign for a sector but name no organisation, your share is divided among all the bodies in that sector according to national rules.

What Happens If You Leave the 5‰ Blank

Unlike the 8 per mille, there is no national redistribution. If you do not complete the 5 per mille section, nothing is allocated through your return and the 0.5% simply remains with the State.

The 2 Per Mille (2‰): 0.2% to a Political Party

The 2 per mille lets you direct 0.2% of your IRPEF to an eligible Italian political party. Only parties that meet the transparency requirements and are entered in the official national register can receive it.

How to Make the Choice

A list of eligible parties and their codes is published each year in the tax return instructions by the Agenzia delle Entrate. To allocate your share, sign the 2 per mille box and enter the code for your chosen party. If you omit the code or enter one that is invalid, no allocation is made and the amount stays with the State.

What Happens If You Leave the 2‰ Blank

As with the 5 per mille, there is no redistribution. Skip the section and the 0.2% remains part of general State revenue. Note that this allocation is entirely separate from voluntary donations to a party, which follow their own rules.

Where and How You Make These Choices

All three options appear together on the standard filing documents:

• The Modello 730 (including the pre-filled version)
• The Modello Redditi PF for individuals with more complex or international income
• A dedicated allocation form (the scheda) for people who are not required to file a full return but still want to direct their share

When you file your return online, or through an employer, a CAF (tax assistance centre), or a commercialista, these sections are built into the process. Even if you owe little or nothing and are not obliged to file, you can usually still express the 8, 5 and 2 per mille: if you hold a Certificazione Unica (CU), you submit the simplified form through a CAF, a post office, or a bank.

It Costs You Nothing Extra

This is the point worth repeating, because it trips up so many people. None of these choices increases your IRPEF, and none of them is a charitable "donation" in the conventional sense. You are redirecting a portion of tax you already owe — not adding to the bill.

That makes the per mille allocations different from voluntary donations (erogazioni liberali) to charities or religious institutions. Those are separate payments out of your own pocket, and they may earn you a deduction or tax credit. The 8, 5 and 2 per mille earn you nothing back, because nothing left your pocket — they are a destination for tax, not a donation.

What It Means for Foreign Taxpayers and New Residents

Few countries offer anything quite like this, so it surprises many new arrivals. The rules are straightforward:

• Every resident and eligible foreign taxpayer who files in Italy can express these choices, or decline to, each year.
• Making a choice never changes your total tax burden.
• If you are not required to file a full return but you have a Certificazione Unica, you can still allocate your share on the simplified form, handed in through a CAF, post office, or bank.
• If you leave everything blank: your 8 per mille share is distributed nationally anyway, while your 5 and 2 per mille shares stay with the State.

For expats, non-residents with Italian income, property owners, and new residents alike, these mechanisms are a no-cost way to support a cause, a community, a research project, or a party you believe in.

Conclusion: A Small Box With a Real Choice

The 8, 5 and 2 per mille are among the few moments in Italian tax filing where you, rather than the Treasury, decide where money goes. They cost nothing, take seconds, and can be revisited every year. The only way to waste the opportunity is to leave the boxes blank without realising what they do — at which point your 5 and 2 per mille quietly return to the State, and your 8 per mille is handed to whichever recipients the rest of the country chose for you.

How We Can Help:

At ItalianTaxes.com, our job is to make filing in Italy clear, paperless, and fully compliant — in plain English. That includes recording your 8, 5 and 2 per mille choices accurately, so the share you want to direct actually reaches the recipient you picked. Whether you are a new resident, a non-resident with Italian income, or simply tired of the paperwork, we help you file your Italian taxes online from anywhere in the world.

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