Percentage Tax Designation Institutions, the Italian way to horizontal subsidiarity

Percentage Tax Designation Institutions, the Italian way to horizontal subsidiarity: empirical findings

Paolo Silvestri, Professor of Philosophy of Law, University of Catania

Paolo Silvestri’s lecture will examine the institutional logic of percentage tax designation institutions (PTDIs), fiscal mechanisms that allow taxpayers to allocate a fixed share of their income tax to specific beneficiaries, such as non-profit organizations or public-interest entities. Known in Italy through schemes such as the 5×1000, these institutions constitute a relatively unusual form of interaction between taxation and civil society. The talk will analyze PTDIs from both empirical and theoretical perspectives. After outlining their institutional design and comparative singularity, it will present findings from recent empirical research on taxpayers’ designation behavior. The presentation will then explore the broader normative implications of these mechanisms, interpreting them as a form of fiscal subsidiarity and as a possible reconfiguration of the relationship between public finance, democratic participation, and civil society.