No limit, then 30 euros, finally 60 euros. But the epic of the threshold for mandatory payments with ATMs and credit cards without incurring penalties does not seem to be over yet. And a reverse from the government is expected.
Meloni’s brake
Even if no confirmations have arrived from the Ministry of the Economy for now, the words spoken on December 4 by the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, in her new column #gliappuntidiGiorgia have not gone unnoticed: «The 60 euros is an indicative threshold – admitted the premier – and for me it can be even lower. There is obviously an interlocution with the EU Commission, because the issue of electronic payment is one of the objectives of the Pnrr, we need to see how it will end».
The criticisms of Bank of Italy
On 5 December, another blow to the provision of the budget law on electronic payments (after that of the Court of Auditors) came with the hearing of Fabrizio Balassone, Head of the Economic Structure Service of the Bank of Italy, at the joint committees House and Senate. Balassone recalled that «the limits on the use of cash, while not providing an absolute impediment to the perpetration of illicit conduct, represent an obstacle for various forms of crime and evasion. In particular – he explained – studies have emerged in recent years, also conducted in our Institute on Italian data, which suggest that higher thresholds favor the underground economy; there is also evidence that the use of electronic payments, allowing the tracking of transactions, would reduce tax evasion».
The “cost” of cash
Balassone also debunked the most widespread argument among supporters of cash under 60 euros: the cost of transactions. «With reference to the charges linked to transactions carried out using electronic payment instruments – he reported – it should be remembered that even cash has costs linked to security (such as those connected with theft, transport of valuables, insurance). Our estimates for 2016 indicate that, for merchants, the cost of cash as a percentage of the transaction amount is higher than that of debit and credit cards».
The obstacles of Europe and the Pnrr
Bankitalia explicitly recalled the danger that the rules on cash payments and the introduction of institutions that reduce the tax burden for taxpayers who are not in compliance with the rules come into conflict «with the drive towards modernization of the country that animates the Pnrr and with the need to continue to reduce tax evasion’. The reference to the specific Recommendations for Italy formulated by the European Commission in the context of the European semester is inevitable, which “start from this assumption”.