A new personal income tax with three rates. Zero VAT for basic necessities. Stop communications in the months of August and December. But also mitigated criminal penalties for taxpayers who found themselves unable to pay and for collaborating companies. The Council of Ministers approved the tax delegation, which will frame the centre-right tax reform. And that promises to change the system and lay the foundations for tax cuts. “The new rules – explains the Ministry of Economy – will be operational within 24 months from the entry into force of the enabling law and go in the direction of simplify and reduce the tax burdenencourage investments and hiring”. Already because on the business front there will be a gradual elimination of IRAP and a reduction of the current IRES rate for those who invest and/or hire”.
Logic of dialogue between administration and taxpayer
The reform aims to establish a relationship between taxpayers and the financial administration in the logic of dialogue. So that the ‘tax friend’ takes shape. In which, however, the opposition and the trade unions, which are already evoking the square, see only pardons and favors for the richest. “I’m pissed off – says the CGIL secretary, Maurizio Landini bluntly – I’m out of it because it’s me who pays taxes even for those who don’t pay them, when they could pay more than me”.
In the meantime, the first stone has been laid.
the measure, divided into 5 parts and 20 articles (the two articles dedicated to regional and local taxes are skipped in the latest draft that entered the council), aims to redesign the entire system, from taxes to proceedings and sanctions, up to consolidated texts and codes. To make it operational the approval of the text-framework by the Parliament will be needed and then the launch of the delegated decrees That they must also contain the appropriate financial ‘covers’which will in part be guaranteed by the revision of the current 600 tax expenditures: discounts, concessions, bonuses that will be revised.
Three personal income tax rates and flat tax for all objectives of the legislature
The reform starts from the personal income tax revolution, with the reduction of the rates from 4 to 3. The two hypotheses not indicated in the delegation are: 23%, 27% and 43% or 23%, 33%, 43%. And while flat taxes for everyone remain a legislature objective, an incremental flat tax will arrive for employees. For businesses, the new two-rate IRES arrives to make those who hire and invest more pay less; the aim is then to gradually abolish Irap with priorities for partnerships, associated firms and partnerships between professionals. There will be a two-year arrangement with creditors and a strengthening of collaborative compliance: “the rules of the fight against tax evasion are rewritten – says the MEF – which becomes preventive and no longer repressive”.
“Evasion of necessity” cleared by customs
The government also wants to overhaul the entire tax penalty system. In particular, for criminal sanctions, special attention will be paid to those who are unable to pay the tax due to facts not attributable to them: in assessing the “criminal relevance” of the fact, account will also be taken of cases in which agreements have been reached in administrative and judicial headquarters. A lightening of the penal sanctions is also envisaged, in particular those connected to the crime of making unfaithful declarations, for companies that adhere to the ‘cooperative compliance’, and which have engaged in non-malicious conduct and promptly notify the tax authorities. Another “reward” effect for those who adhere to spontaneous compliance is the further reduction of administrative sanctions (which can go as far as complete non-application) for tax risks communicated in advance in a “timely and exhaustive” manner.
Ruffini: there is a need
The reform, claims the director of the Revenue Agency Ernesto Maria Ruffini, “is necessary”. And he adds: “as a citizen” I see as a “good sign” the fact that it is the “first time, in a long time, that a tax reform arrives at the beginning of the legislature”. The majority defends the delegation compactly, with Fi at the forefront, which claims Berlusconi’s winning recipe: “It is the starting whistle. Then they will have to follow the implementing decrees, it is a job that has a legislature perspective”, underlines the president of the blue deputies Alessandro Cattaneo. The oppositions instead raise the barricades.
“It is nonsense to say that taxes are lowered for everyone”: in this way “we favor those who are better off, those with higher incomes will see greater gain”, the secretary of the Pd Elly Schlein goes on the attack. “It is a recessive reform”, the M5s leader Giuseppe Conte increases, ready to take to the streets with the unions.