Who said that companies are never inspected? Tra Inps, Inail, National Labor Inspectorate, Inland Revenue, Customs and Monopolies Agency, Guardia di Finanza, Local Health Units / Firms, Fire Brigade, Chambers of Commerce, Privacy Authority, Forest Police, NAS, NOE , Siae, etc., the SMEs potentially risk 122 checks a year by 19 different public bodies.
To say it is the Studies Office of the CGIA which has updated the periodic elaboration on the possible controls that an SME can incur during the year. How did this result come about? First of all, the general legislative framework has been divided into four major areas. Subsequently, for each of them the number of the main controls that a small company can incur due to the inspection activity carried out by the bodies in charge was calculated. Very briefly, below are the 4 sectors, the number of potential inspections and the public structures involved:
Environment and safety in the workplace: this area is the most "risky": it is affected by 60 possible controls that can be carried out by 11 different institutions and bodies;
Tax: in this area the number of checks is equal to 30 and 6 are the agencies and bodies involved;
Contracts: in the work area the number of possible controls is 21, while the interested institutions and agencies are 4;
Administrative: this sector registers 11 controls that are the prerogative of 7 different institutions and bodies.
"With a jumble of rules that are often incomprehensible and in many cases contradict each other - declares the coordinator of the Studies Office Paolo Zabeo - any entrepreneur, especially if small, runs the risk of never being in compliance with the law. Therefore, the hypothesis of a control is experienced by the owner of the activity as a nightmare that threatens to throw anyone into a panic. To overcome this situation it is desirable to reduce the general regulatory framework, making the laws, decrees, ordinances, circulars and implementing regulations simpler and more comprehensible. Otherwise, the strong discretion that still benefits those who are called upon to carry out inspection activities will never fail. Finally, where possible, the number of formal controls must be increased, that is, those performed remotely via computer, thus lightening the bureaucratic oppression that hangs over the companies".
Despite the announcements and promises flaunted by the 4 twenty by all the executives who have governed the country in the last 10 years, from the CGIA they remember that the total number of potential controls remained almost the same. In addition to inspection, it should not be forgotten that the general weight of bureaucracy is an important economic cost that removes resources from growth and employment.
"Generally - states the Secretary Renato Mason - the provision of services in a reasonably short time is increasingly requested of public offices. Unfortunately, the presence of so many laces and loops determined by self-referential central apparatus and far from the territory, constitute the main obstacle against which public employees are forced to measure themselves. The disappearance of so many rules, excessively complex and often useless, could free up a lot of energy and resources in the country, helping businesses and citizens to free themselves from obstacles thrown up by often indecipherable rules, simplifying, at the same time, even the work of those forced to apply and enforce them ".
Environment and safety: the sector most at risk controls
As was easily predictable, among the 4 sectors analyzed, the one with the highest "density" of potential controls is the environment area and safety in the workplace. 60, in fact, are the main controls that a small business can incur during the year. The most “risky” items concern the compliance / maintenance of the efficiency of the plants (electric, water, gas, etc.), compliance with the regulations on discharges, on the correct management of waste and on fire prevention measures. In all circumstances, 6 has different bodies that have specific competences in the field of control. The most involved are the ASL / ULSS, the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection, the NAS, the NOE and the Municipal Police. Equally "demanding" are the presence and compliance with the requirements relating to emissions into the atmosphere, training obligations in the field of safety at work, safety plans and risk assessment.
Except for overlaps, in the 2018 the tax authorities checked 2,9 millions of tax payers
Only in fiscal matters, in the 2018 were carried out:
520.878 instrumental checks by the Guardia di Finanza;
404.355 ordinary and partial assessments automated by the Revenue Agency;
additional 106.798 audits and checks by the Guardia di Finanza;
additional 31.798 audits, controls and access to documents by the Revenue Agency.
In addition to these initiatives, the Inland Revenue has sent 1.901.138 letters to activate compliance (requests for clarifications on detected or potential irregularities).
We can therefore state that, with the exception of overlaps, the tax payers "approached" by the tax authorities were 2,9 million and in the vast majority of cases these subjects were holders of a VAT number (businesses, artisans, traders, freelancers, etc.).
With regard to the work of the labor inspectors, the Carabinieri for the protection of labor and the INPS personnel and Inail, however, last year the supervisory activity involved 164.655 companies as a whole.
With regard to the food supply chain, finally, in the 2018 the interventions of the NAS at the companies of this sector, 31.479 was added, in addition to the inspection activity in the catering sector (pizzerias, trattorias, bars, delis, fast food, etc.), which involved 11.954 activities.