ECCLESIASTICAL TAXES. - Alongside voluntary contributions—donations, testamentary dispositions, offerings (v.)—they are one of the sources of the Church’s income, which has the right to require of the faithful, independently of the civil authority, the means necessary for divine worship and the support of the clergy (cf. can. 1496 CIC).
In the Church’s tax system there is likewise a distinction between imposts, compulsory levies on wealth made in order to meet collective needs, and taxes, due as consideration for services rendered by ecclesiastical offices. Among the former are to be counted tithes (v.) and episcopal tributes in general: some of these are ordinary, such as the cathedraticum (v.) tax (v.); others—extraordinary—may be imposed, in a moderate amount (can. 1505), upon all secular or religious beneficiaries in order to meet some particular need of the diocese.
Moreover, bishops may impose a tribute upon churches, benefices, and ecclesiastical institutions at the time of foundation or consecration (can. 1506), as well as temporary pensions charged upon the holder of a benefice (can. 1429).
Among taxes should be recalled those for the conferral of benefices, for the grant of the pallium, and the chancery and judicial taxes due to the Holy See (v. TASSE DI CURIA); those of chancery, for dispensations, and judicial taxes
due to bishops (can. 1909); and stole fees (v. STOLA, diritti di) belonging to parish priests. Rodolfo Danieli