Since 2012, families and businesses have paid in almost 156 billion euros from IMU and Tasi. A full-fledged asset that, on the one hand, heavily lightened the portfolios of property owners and, on the other, heavily depreciated the economic value of homes, shops and warehouses.
Compared to the 2008, year in which the bubble burst, in many cases the buildings lost up to 40 per cent of their value.
This was reported by the CGIA Studies Office which put on line the revenues of Imu and Tasi registered in 2012, the year in which the then Monti Government reintroduced the tax on the first home, and that of the following years, up to the 2018 (latest available).
“Until a few years ago - points out the coordinator of the Studies Office Paolo Zabeo - the purchase of a house or an instrumental property was an investment. Now, especially those who own a second home or a shed, are experiencing a nightmare. Between Imu, Tasi and Tari, for example, these buildings are subject to a tax burden that will make your wrists tremble ”.
If with the abolition of the Tasi on the first home the owners have saved 3,5 billion euros a year, on the instrumental properties, however, the transition from the ICI to the Imu has seen a double taxation. Between 2011, the last year in which ICI was applied, and 2018, the revenue increased from 4,9 to 10,2 billion euros. However, it should be emphasized that for some years the levy on productive activities has decreased thanks to the elimination of the Imu on bolted items and, only this year, following the deductibility of the tax which has risen from 20 to 40 percent.
"2019 will be a difficult and challenging year, but Italy can do it if it applies the recipe for growth, that is, less public spending and fewer taxes", comments the secretary of the CGIA, Renato Mason. “To cushion the GDP slowdown - he continues - it is absolutely necessary to avoid the increase in VAT. Citizens and businesses can no longer pay the bill for the inability of politics to tackle the issue of rationalizing total expenditure once and for all ”.
With a fiscal pressure that, despite the promises, for the current year is even destined to increase, doing business is increasingly difficult, also because property taxes have reached an unacceptable threshold.
“Although some measures have been taken in favor of businesses, the general picture remains bleak. I would like to underline - concludes Zabeo - that the shed is not flaunted by the owner of the company as an element of wealth, but as an instrumental asset that serves to produce added value and to create jobs, where the surface and the cubic volume are functional. to the productive activity exercised. Fiscal relentlessness on these properties continues to make no sense, other than to raise cash, but slowing down the real economy of the country ".
At territorial level the largest Imu-Tasi withdrawal occurs in Valle d'Aosta: in the 2018 the per capita revenue was equal to 712 euro, against a national average of 348 euro. The per capita revenue in Liguria (583 euros), in Trentino Alto Adige (499 euros) and in Emilia Romagna (436 euros) was also particularly strong.
Compared to 2011, the last year in which ICI was applied, the change in revenue collected on all the properties in the country increased, in absolute terms, by 114 percent. If 8 years ago the municipalities collected 9,8 billion euros, between Imu and Tasi last year they collected 21 billion. In percentage terms, the regions with the most important increase in absolute value recorded between 2011 and 2018 were Trentino Alto Adige (+185 percent), Molise (+161 percent) and Valle d'Aosta ( +155 percent) (see Tab. 4). In per capita terms, however, always Trentino Alto Adige (+175 percent), Molise (+165 percent) and Valle d'Aosta (+156 percent).