Agevolazioni fiscali e settore non profit nell'esperienza italiana (Tax breaks and the non profit sector in Italy)

The purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative analysis of the use of tax breaks to encourage voluntary donations in favour of non profit organizations in Italy. In the first part, after an overview of the economic motivations and the role of tax relief in the context of voluntary donations, we provide a brief description of the tax framework. In the second part, we quantify the phenomenon, examining donation trends, donor type along with geographic distribution. The paper considers voluntary donations in favour of NPOs and NGOs, which represent the principal actors in the Italian non profit sector. The data used covers the period 1992-2001 for NGOs and 1998-2003 for NPOs. The analysis shows the growing importance of these donations, which increased from ? 4.3 to ? 17.4 million for NGOs and from ? 27.2 to ? 191.6 million for NPOs. Moreover, tax breaks are more frequently used by high income individuals in the northern and central regions of the country.