Next Monday and Tuesday will be two days of "nightmare" for Italian entrepreneurs who will be called upon to honor the most onerous tax deadline of the year. Between the payment of the Ires and Irap Irpef advances and the substitute tax for the lump-sum activities, the CGIA Studies Office estimates that companies will be required to pay 27 billion euros to the tax authorities.
By Tuesday, in essence, the State will collect an amount that is close to the economic dimension that will characterize the next budget maneuver which, we recall, amounts to about 30 billion.
Furthermore, artisans, merchants and self-employed workers will have to pay their social security contributions to INPS. Faced with this situation, there will be cases in which it will be difficult to meet this deadline; unfortunately, the lack of liquidity is becoming a nagging problem again, especially for many small and micro enterprises.
Tax reform: the CGIA in line with the Government
The political agreement reached in recent days on the tax cut, as required by the next budget law, was greeted positively by the CGIA. With 7 billion less Irpef and the reduction of one billion IRAP, the artisans of Mestre receive an answer in line with the position taken in recent months: the 8 billion reduction put into action by the government had to affect almost exclusively the personal income tax. And so it was. Of course, all this is still not enough and the CGIA trusts in the enabling law so that the executive can further reduce taxes, helping to bring our tax burden in line with the European average. Since time immemorial, in fact, Italian entrepreneurs, who have always been strongly dedicated to exports, have been asking for a less invasive tax that allows them to compete on an equal footing with their foreign competitors.
Compared to 2020, the taxman collects 47 billion more
Compared to 2020, the state will collect 47 billion more this year. A higher revenue due, obviously, to the ongoing economic recovery. In fact, despite the increase in total revenues, the tax burden is destined to decline. If in 2020 with a fall in GDP of almost 9 percent it had risen to 42,8 percent (gross of the 100 euro measure), this year it drops by almost one point, settling, despite the significant increase in revenue in terms of absolute, at 41,9 per cent. Still according to the data presented in recent months by the Ministry of Economy and Finance with the Update of the DEF, the tax burden in 2022, on the other hand, will line up at 42 percent.
Top income from Ires
Analyzing the amounts that the tax authorities will collect by Tuesday, the most economically important deadline will be that attributable to the payment of the Ires advance which, according to estimates by the CGIA Research Office, will cost companies 12,2 billion euros. The Irap advance, on the other hand, will take 6,8 billion from the coffers of companies, while the personal income tax advance will be just under 6,7 billion euros. For the latter item, it should be noted that part of the payment will be in the hands of Irpef subjects who do not have a VAT number (i.e. employees or retirees) who have other forms of income (rents, different incomes, etc.). Finally, the tax authorities will receive approximately 1,2 billion euros from the substitute tax for self-employed workers on a flat-rate basis.
December will also be a very busy month
December will also be a particularly busy month on the tax front for many entrepreneurs. In fact, by December 16, companies will have to pay social security and welfare contributions and the Irpef withholdings of their employees and collaborators. They will also have to pay the advance of the substitute tax on income from revaluation of the severance pay, the balance of the Imu on warehouses, offices, shops and VAT for the month of November, provided they are monthly taxpayers. Finally, by Christmas they will also have to pay the thirteenth to their employees. In short, it cannot be excluded that many small entrepreneurs short of money will find themselves in serious difficulty in meeting all these tight deadlines.
To those who do not pay by Tuesday, what happens to them?
If someone does not meet the payment deadline set for Tuesday 30 November, what happens to them? The tax system, the CGIA Studies Office reminds us, imposes a penalty of 1 percent of the amount to be paid to the tax authorities on the taxpayer for each day of delay within the 15th day of the deadline. The percentage rises to 15 percent if the payment is made within the 90th day of the due date. For non-payment or for payment made after 90 days from the statutory deadline, the penalty rises to 30 percent of the amount to be paid to the tax authorities. Regardless of the delay, legal interest equal to 4 percent of the amount to be paid is also due. It should be remembered that the penalties can be heavily reduced by taking advantage of the institution of "active repentance", provided that both the omitted amount and the penalty (appropriately reduced) and interest are paid. The reductions, of course, decrease with the passage of the payment time.
Convoluted payment method that penalizes everyone
In Italy, the basic principle is that the artisan or small merchant pays taxes not only on what he declared the previous year, but also on what he earns in the current year, as a "down payment" for the payment of taxes that they will be paid in the following year.
In other words, it goes into credit (or debit) with the taxman for the annuity that is yet to come. In principle, this system provides for the payment of taxes to the Treasury in two installments: the first between the end of June and the beginning of July, the second by the end of November. The amount of the advances is equal to 100 per cent of the tax due for the previous year and is usually paid in two installments in June and November. Both are the same for "ISA subjects" (ie those who carry out economic activities for which Synthetic Reliability Indices have been drawn up), while - for other taxpayers - the first installment corresponds to 40 percent of the amount due and the second to 60 percent. This mechanism generates a situation of scarce transparency and often creates financial problems, because it is difficult for the entrepreneur to predict how much he will have to pay. The situation, in fact, is only balanced when there are no obvious income differences between one year and another, but when this is not the case, as happened between 2019 and 2020, things get complicated. In the event that the income is lower than that recorded the year before, the entrepreneur goes to credit, as the tax advances are calculated on a higher income. If, on the other hand, there is a strong increase in income, the situation is reversed. The taxpayer goes into debt and on the June deadline is called to pay a very demanding tax balance, because the advances calculated the previous year were underestimated. This explains the reason why the taxman does not reward income growth but, if anything, penalizes it.