Following the assessment activity carried out last year on economic activities, it emerges that the highest average tax assessed by the Inland Revenue for each single large company is just over 1 million euro, for the average 365.111 euro company and for the small 63.606 euro (According to the estimates of the Ministry of Economy and Finance - 2018 tax returns - small businesses and self-employed are around 5 million, medium-sized companies almost 56.000 and large companies just over 5.300 ).
In other words, the extent of the disputed disputed to large companies turned out to be 16 times higher than that of small companies and self-employed workers (in the 2017 it had been equal to 18). To say it is the CGIA. The coordinator of the Paolo Zabeo Research Department declares:
"These data tell us that the potential dimension of the fiscal infidelity of large companies is vastly greater than that of small businesses. Obviously, none of us would like the country to turn into a fiscal police state; however, greater attention to these subjects would be desirable, given that the methods of evasion of holding companies cannot be ascribed to the failure to issue receipts or receipts, but to the use of customs fraud, carousel fraud, foreign operations abroad and undue compensation . Crimes, the latter, which will not even be touched by measures to combat the use of cash that the Government will develop in the coming weeks ".
In general, the CGIA Studies Office emphasizes, the tax assessment is triggered when the data provided by the tax payer (in this case the companies) are different from those held by the tax authorities. The latter, in fact, is activated when it believes that the company, for example, has underestimated the income or has used deductions / deductions that are not due.
Obviously, the greater tax ascertained does not transform sic et simpliciter into revenue for the Treasury. Following the request for clarification from the tax authorities, the companies can repent, negotiate their position with the Revenue Agency or resort to tax justice, undertaking a dispute with the tax authorities that could affect the three levels of judgment. The Secretary of the CGIA states Renato Mason:
"Whether they are large or small, evaders must be pursued wherever they hide. However, if our tax department were less demanding, the effort required would be more contained and the Treasury would probably also benefit. With a lower tax burden, many who today are marginal tax evaders would become honest tax payers. I remember that our civil justice is very slow, the bureaucracy has reached unbearable levels and the Public Administration remains the worst payer in Europe: despite these inefficiencies, the request of our tax department is at very high levels and, for these reasons, appears of the all unjustified ”.
- The assessments and income of companies
Returning to the data relating to the tax assessments carried out last year, it emerges that the number of the same performed on small businesses and self-employed workers is slightly higher than 140 thousand (8,9 billion higher tax ascertained), those that involved medium-sized companies almost 10 thousand (3,6 billion ascertained), while the large companies called to justify themselves before the tax authorities were over 2.200 (2,4 billion ascertained).
However, if we compare the number of these operations with the total number of companies present in each single size typology, we note that the tax activity involved the 3 per cent of the small, the 14 per cent of the medium and the 32 for the center of the great entrepreneurs .
Therefore, as there are so many small and micro businesses and a few medium and large companies, it would seem more sensible to strengthen the assessment activity on the small, rather than on the others. Also because the verification activity on a small business is simpler, it requires less time, less costs and a smaller number of personnel compared to the resources and effort that must be employed when controlling a medium and large company.
Otherwise, the amounts of the greater tax assessed on a pro-company basis show that it would seem more convenient for tax authorities to concentrate enforcement action against medium and large-sized production companies. Although it is much more challenging for the tax authorities to relate to the latter, in economic terms there is no comparison: the data of the last 2 years show how the potential size of the recoverable tax is, as reported above, by more than 1 million for each single large company, around 350 thousand for each medium-sized company and only around 64 thousand for small and self-employed workers.
The CGIA also remembers that according to the data of the tax returns relating to 2018, the average declared income of natural persons (sole proprietorships and self-employed workers) was 25.290 euro, that of partnerships (Snc, Sas, Ss, etc.) 34.260 euro and that of the joint-stock companies (Spa, Srl, Sapa, etc.) only 34.670 euro. A data, the latter, conditioned to the downside, when just under the 40 hundred of the total of capital companies registers an income at a loss or in balance.
- Not just ordinary investigations: 2018 billion have been recovered from the fight against tax evasion in 19,2
In terms of countering tax evasion, in addition to the 152.200 about ordinary tax assessments made in the 2018, we must add:
- besides 1.900.000 letters for the activation of compliance (requests for clarifications on detected or potential irregularities);
- almost 252.000 automated partial assessments (revision, based on certain elements, of other forms of undeclared income);
- almost 531.000 instrumental checks (on tax receipts, receipts, invoices and transport documents) made by the Guardia di Finanza.
Last year, from the fight against tax evasion, the Tax Authorities recovered 19,2 billion, of which 16,2 is attributable to ordinary business (direct 11,25 billion payments, 1,85 billion compliance and 3,1 ordinary roles) and 3 billion attributable to extraordinary activities (2,59 billion scrapping, 300 million voluntary disclosure and 100 million tax disputes). Compared to the 2017 the revenue from ordinary activities increased by 11 per cent (+ 10 per cent direct payments, + 38 per cent compliance and + 4 per cent roles). Revenue from extraordinary activities fell by 46 per cent (-87 per cent tax disputes, -41 per cent scrapping and -25 per cent voluntary disclosure). It should also be remembered that of the 19,2 billion recovered in the 2018, about half of this amount consists of penalties and default interest.
