ROME. “They certainly can’t say that this too is our fault.” Giorgia Meloni’s first comment, after seeing the data arriving from Brussels on VAT evasion, is tranchant. In the government offices, the reasoning that is made is this: “Gentiloni knows very well that if the tax system does not work, the responsibility rests with the previous governments, we have just arrived”, says a source. And in fact, Palazzo Chigi and the Treasury are counting on taking matters into their own hands and bringing a new fiscal delegation to Parliament between January and February. The thesis of the deputy minister Maurizio Leo, the tax expert of the Brothers of Italy to whom Meloni and Giorgetti have delegated the entire tax issue, is that repression is not enough to make taxes pay. As this newspaper reported yesterday, the pending reform aims to review everything: personal income tax, IRES, VAT. Businesses must no longer be harassed, explained Leo, “the logic of the assessment must be changed, favoring the relationship between financial administration and taxpayers”. We need to dialogue with businesses, introduce a “cooperative compliance” with large companies and a two-year preventive arrangement with SMEs, writing table agreements with entrepreneurs on taxes to be paid in subsequent years. And e-invoicing is a tool that will facilitate this process, just as the European Commission is asking for.
Palazzo Chigi firmly rejects the accusations of wanting to give gifts to tax evaders and the rich. However, article 26 of the budget law extends until June 2023 the relief which allows taxation on capital gains on land and shareholdings to be limited to 14% – instead of the 26% envisaged for capital income – also extending it to shares and securities on the financial markets, savings and assets in funds and life insurance policies. A fundamental measure for coverage given that it should yield almost one and a half billion. Pd senator Antonio Misiani defines the rule as “a maxi discount, a very welcome favor for the richest, a nice hello to those who are worse off, rather than priorities for families and the fragile”. And an amendment also appears, signed by some deputies of the Brothers of Italy, which provides for the suspension of criminal proceedings for those who have problems with the tax authorities relating to the period January-October 2022 and request access to installment payments. The procedural process would stop until the end of the installments.
Meanwhile, the League rejoices at the decision of the European Council to set a maximum ceiling of 10,000 euros for cash payments. «Europe confirms the freedom to use one’s money as one wishes, even doubling the ceiling on the use of cash set by the Italian government to 5,000 euros. Claims and critics in silence?», writes Matteo Salvini in a tweet. Even the president of the Finance commission of the Brothers of Italy, Marco Osnato, goes on the attack: «Once again those who portray the Meloni government and its majority as a hodgepodge of anti-Europeans who favor tax evasion are being denied. Now enough platitudes from the opposition ».
On the other hand, the stop in maneuvering fines for traders and professionals who do not accept payments with the Pos under 60 euros is a measure that will have to change. Negotiations with Brussels are underway and at the same time the majority are studying a tax credit for exhibitors if the threshold should – as it seems – be lowered. The margins for changing the budget law are narrow, and tension is increasingly high within the centre-right. After the irritation of Forza Italia for the control room on the maneuver decided by Meloni – which risks delegitimizing the Budget commission chaired by the blue Giuseppe Mangialavori – there is controversy over minimum pensions. Undersecretary of Labor of the Lega Claudio Durigon argues that now the checks cannot be raised: “Not immediately, we will do it during the legislature”, while Forza Italia insists and wants to bring them from 570 to 600 euros. The proposed mediation could reward only some categories of over 70s, but it is difficult to apply. The vice president of the Chamber and deputy of Forza Italia, Giorgio Mulè has no doubts: “We will arrive at 600 euros a month as Berlusconi asks”.
Of the 3,100 amendments tabled in committee, the executive expects to keep only 500. The meeting to find agreement on the “reported” ones is scheduled for Sunday, but it is inevitable that some will remain unhappy, especially in the majority.