“Last year we addressed the issue of tax justice and at the beginning of August the reform was passed and we hope that in a few years we will see the fruits of this legislative provision. This year we address the themes of reform of the tax delegation. In this first part we will address the issues related to the bill”. She said it Guglielmo Maisto, Funding Partner of the Maisto e Associati studio opening the institutional debate of the event “The italian tax reform: challenges and opportunities” coordinated by the Firm on the occasion of Legal Community Week.
The event was also attended by the Deputy Minister of Economy, Maurice Leo: “There are a number of measures included in the delegation. Already in the first articles, those of the general principles, it is expressly stated that the tax legislation will have to conform to the regulations in particular of the European principles, review the mechanisms of the residence of natural persons and companies, income taxes to be reviewed in particular for companies, the tax qualification of foreign entities on the basis of the principles of the jurisdiction to which they belong; the regulation of final losses will be reviewed in the light of the EU regulation as well as that of interest expense with full deduction. Other measures of international taxation are contained in indirect points, such as measures in terms of exemption and deduction”.
The single text
Leo continues: “Also on the customs issue, we will adapt to the consolidated text to make it consistent with EU rules, also working for the single customs and control window that make processes simpler and faster. Two other important aspects will be that of reshoring, therefore trying to encourage companies that intend to come to the national territory to carry out production activities, companies that have moved abroad by giving them greater elements of certainty, simplification and, compatibly with financial resources, reducing their tax burden. But also for natural persons who intend to settle in Italy from abroad – we are working in terms of cooperative compliance: we plan to strengthen a central structure for the revenue agency that can dialogue more directly with foreign citizens who come to Italy and want to establish their residence in the territory to have certain rules on their tax burden”.
“Extremely punctual delegation in addressing the issues that we carry with us regarding criminal law from the first law, the so-called “handcuffs to tax evaders” where the definition already said a lot about how the legislator intended to regulate the tax phenomenon in terms of penalties. Law 516 of 1982 was named after this to instill fear and reiterate the intimidating effect. It was just an effect. There is no doubt that today the delegation deals with the tax issue in a different spirit”, he affirms Paola Severino, president of the National School of Administration, vice president of Luiss Guido Carli.
The meaning of the reform
“On the one hand – he underlines – it aims to eliminate contradictions that exist in the tax system between the administrative, sanctioning and criminal aspects, on the other hand it tends to reduce that particularity of tax law which has made it a specialized subject. The teaching aimed at saying “those who do not pay taxes must be punished” would make us all happy if this were really the case. The truth is that we continue to pay taxes correctly in a few. It is the total evasion of some professional categories that concern us most also in terms of pensions. If it does not contribute it causes irreparable damage to the community. It is also changing strategy that you can obtain a better relationship between the tax authorities and the economic-corporate community”.
Per Marco Osnato, president of the Finance Commission, Chamber of Deputies, “the delegation is an important provision, at the heart of the interests of Parliament and of the operators in the sector. AND a turning point for this legislature”.
“The challenges – he added – start from a consideration of necessity, to have a tax reform and legal certainty avoiding dispersion, with the attempt to arrive at consolidated texts for legal certainty on the international scene. Then there are perspective challenges, new ways of taxation that can be achieved in the long run arrive at a flat tax which is not a fairy tale as some would have you believe but it is a homogenization of a series of flat-rate situations that already exist in our legal system and which therefore with an important assessment of deductibility can be made easier to apply. Another important challenge is that of encouraging investments within companies. We believe that at this moment there is a possibility that Italy is channeling itself towards greater productivity, which I believe is one of those agents that can support this moment of competitiveness. This could lead to new hires, the latest statistics show a decrease in unemployment and an increase in employment, even if there is still a high number of inactive people and this should make us think. The taxman is one of the positive agents that can improve the performance of our companies. One can also imagine arriving at a cAggregating capacity of the PMI system which in Italy represent a strong economic fabric but which today risks becoming critical on international competitiveness”. (Ticker)