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Contributions to the Clergy Fund

Publication: 25/01/2022

The Pension Fund of the secular clergy and of ministers of religious faiths denominations other than Catholic (Clergy Fund), established with Law 903/73, constitutes a social security form compatible with the Compulsory General Insurance (AGO) for invalidity, old-age and survivors' pensions and with other forms of pension funds that are substitute, exclusive or exempting forms of the AGO.
Contribution to the Clergy Fund is compulsory and arises from the status of minister of religious faith under Article 5 of Law 903/73.
The status must be attested by the superior exercising jurisdiction over him/her according to the rules of canon law. It follows that on this superior, and on the equated figures in the case of non-Catholic confessions, there is an obligation of notification which gives rise to the social security registration to the Fund, its maintenance and termination.
For the purposes of determining the amounts to be paid, each year, on the basis of an inter-ministerial regulation, a circular is drawn up indicating, in detail, all the procedures for the payment of the contribution and the relative amount.

It is addressed to persons registered with the Clergy Fund. .

Independent payment methods

The members of the Fund who autonomously pay their contributions are as follows:

  • secular Catholic priests excluded from the sustenance referred to in Law no. 222 of 20 May 1985;
  • non-Catholic ministers of religious faith required to carry out individual obligations on the basis of the provisions for each faith by the relevant ministerial decree (cf. Article 5, paragraph 2, of Law 903/1973) which extended to the respective religion the provisions of Law 903/1973;
  • secular Catholic priests and non-Catholic ministers making voluntary contributions.

For the execution of the payment accessible from the Payments Portal - Clergy Fund, the following features are reported:

  • online payment “pagoPA”, via payment cards (credit, debit or prepaid cards) or current account debit;
  • displaying and printing the “pagoPA” Payment Notification;
  • displaying and printing the MAV slip (only for payments due in November 2019 and January 2020);
  • displaying and printing receipts for payments made by MAV/“pagoPA”.

With reference to the payment method with Payment Notification “pagoPA”, the individual concerned may use one of the Payment Service Providers (PSP) participating in the “pagoPA” circuit.

For each PSP it is possible to consult, on the www.pagopa.gov.it website, the available payment channels (physical counter, home banking, mobile app, phone banking, ATM) for both current and non-current account holders.

In any case, the member will receive payment notices from the year 2020 onwards.


Cumulative payments and bank transfers

Single payment by bank transfer is provided for payments by the following parties:

  • by the central institute for the support of the clergy (ICSC), with reference to Catholic priests falling within the sustenance system as per Law no. 222/1985;
  • by the various non-Catholic religious faiths, with reference to their own ministers of faith, in cases where the ministerial decree, which, extended the applicability of Law no. 903/1973, provides for the single obligation.

The aforementioned cumulative payments must be made exclusively by direct transfer to the Provincial Treasury on the special accounts payable to the Provincial Directorate of Terni, whose references are: IBAN: IT06H0100003245321200001248 and BIC:

BITAITRRENT, also valid for payments within the Euro area. Transfers from “non-Euro” countries must be addressed to the current account held by the same Provincial Directorate with Casse di Risparmio dell’Umbria on branch no. 00430 - "Terni Sede", whose IBAN is IT13G0631514405100000004580 and BIC is CRSPIT3S.

The use of the transfer is exceptionally allowed even by individual members who are abroad (voluntary taxpayers or obligatory taxpayers at the service of an Italian Diocese or equivalent figure for non-Catholic ministers of religious faith) for payments they are required to meet at regular intervals.

The derogation has been provided for to facilitate compliance outside the national territory that can make use of the direct transfer to the Treasury on condition that they require prior authorisation from the Terni Provincial Directorate, within which the single national pole is established for managing the formalities referring to the Clergy Fund.

The assent of the aforementioned regional entity is essential to allow the crediting of sums by the operator, who must bring back the payment that will be received by bank transfer, providing for a manual matching.
With reference to bank transfers, whether individually recorded or cumulative, it will only be possible to obtain the amount if the following data appears in the causal field:

  • the word “CLERO” (CLERGY);
  • the tax code of the priest or minister of worship for transfers of individual members, or the identifier of the ICSC or of the non-Catholic confession for cumulative transfers;
  • the reference period (“from/to”, in dd/mm/yyyy).

In the absence of the aforementioned data and, with exclusive reference to the individual transfers of the individual members, in the absence of the prior authorisation of the Terni Provincial Directorate, payment will not be attributed in the account statement due to a lack of certain identification of the social security position.

In accordance with the general rules, the authorisation provided by the Terni Provincial Directorate remains valid also for the deadlines subsequent to the first claim, until the member asks for it to be revoked.

The authorisation can be claimed by ordinary electronic mail, to the institutional box Fondo.Clero@inps.it, or by sending an email to the certified email at direzione.provinciale.terni@postacert.inps.gov.it.