Tax evasion, however, is lower than the costs caused by the inefficiency of our PA
In the last 45 years, reports the CGIA Studies Office, the tax amnesties have allowed the Treasury to collect 131,8 billions of euros (result of the sum of amounts related to various years that have been revalued to 2017).
In absolute terms the total amount "recovered" is certainly important; however, it is much less if compared to the size of tax evasion in the country which, according to data from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, amounts to about 110 billion per year. In other words, the amnesties served to make cash, but not to "heal" the evasion that continues to steal substantial resources from the state. So, few illusions: even the "fiscal peace" that the Conte government wants to introduce into the 2019 risks securing a much lower income than expected.
From the CGIA, however, they would like to clarify the following:
“Given that tax evasion must be opposed wherever it is located - underlines the coordinator of the Studies Office Paolo Zabeo - it is nevertheless good to remember that in the relationship between the taxman and the taxpayer the most injured party is not the first, but the second. If, in fact, we take into account the economic effects attributable to the malfunctioning of the public machinery, the damages suffered by citizens and businesses are significantly higher than those caused to the State by tax evaders through non-payment of taxes and contributions ".
The study department, in fact, reminds that:
- the debts of our Public Administration towards its suppliers amount, according to the latest estimates of the Bank of Italy, to 57 billion;
- from some analyzes conducted by the Confcommercio Studies Office, the infrastructural deficit costs the economy of our country 42 billions of euros a year;
- according to the calculations of the Department of Public Function -President of the Council of Ministers, the excess of bureaucracy that characterizes the Italian Public Administration weighs for 31 billion a year on the system of our SMEs;
- the delays of justice, especially the civil one, produce, according to the Bank of Italy, a cost equal to one point of GDP per year (about 16 billion euros);
- in a study written by The European House Ambrosetti and the State Railways it emerges that the waste and inefficiencies in the local public transport sector amount to 12 billion.
"Obviously - reports the Secretary of the CGIA Renato Mason - the amounts just described can not be added up. First of all because many of these areas of intervention overlap and secondly because they are data extrapolated from different sources. However, one thing is certain: evasion must be countered with all the forces, but it is also essential to make the public car more efficient and less costly to allow those who are loyal to the tax authorities, or the overwhelming majority of Italian taxpayers, to pay less and to receive better services ".
Returning to the amnesties, the CGIA Studies Office emphasizes that the revenues reported in the 1 Tab are those of each year and do not refer only to a particular type of amnesty. In fact, the collections relating to each measure tend to be distributed over several years; however, in this elaboration they were ordered according to the annuity in which the legislator introduced them. Furthermore, it is noted that the amounts were derived from the national accounts which, according to the imputation rules, are almost in line with the actual collection (see provisions in Sec 2010 4.150 point).
It should also be stressed that Italian taxpayers who have a tax debt are around 20 million. Of these, the 82 percent, equal to 16.340.000 people, must pay less than 10 thousand euros. Altogether the roles to be collected amount to 871 billions of euros. If we take into account the bankrupt parties or the deceased, of cases in which the collection is suspended, of the situations in which the installments are in progress the incurring residual falls to 84,2 billion which also includes the debts for which the tax payers can not be prosecuted as a result of the provisions of the law (minimum threshold for mortgage registration, first house imprignorability, limitation to the robbery of salaries and wages, etc.) - (Chamber of Deputies VI Finance Committee - Hearing of the Director of the Revenue Agency and President of the Revenue Agency - Collection of Lawyer Ernesto Maria Ruffini - Rome, 4 July 2018).
Besides the traditional tax evaders, moreover, it should not be forgotten that a good part of the 110 billions that are taken away from the tax is attributable to the evasive actions of the corporations, to the multinationals of the web and to the escape of some big companies that have moved their offices taxes in countries with a marked tax advantage for paying less taxes.
And with the abolition of banking secrecy in the 2016, more than a dozen measures can now be used by the tax administration to effectively combat evasion. An audience of instruments that should no longer allow anyone to escape the demands of the tax authorities. It consists of:
- field studies;
- redditometro;
- spesometro;
- abolition of banking secrecy;
- blitz against the non-issue of receipts and receipts;
- 117 (telephone number of public utility of the GdF);
- methods of control of SMEs and self-employed workers;
- limit to the use of cash up to 2.999 euro;
- Serpico (super-brawn that records tens of thousands of information per second, comparing the data of the tax return, insurance policies, information on the cadastre, state property, motorization, etc.);
- use of the Pos for commercial transactions;
- electronic invoicing;
- split payment;
- reverse charge.