Ticking a wrong box in the declaration for an unauthorized building bonus or reporting a health, veterinary expense or incorrect amounts on the interest expense for the first home for which the taxpayer collects the 19% Irpef discount still seems to cost Italian taxpayers dearly . From the automated checks on over 40 million tax returns submitted annually by taxpayers between 730, VAT, IRAP and Income, the financial administration collected on behalf of the Treasury in 2021 something like 5.25 billion euros.
38% of the 2021 recovery
On balance, this figure represents about 38% of the total recovery loot of tax evasion 2021 (13.8 billion according to the data released by the latest Economic and Financial Document, the Def). In practice, a higher amount of collection proceeds which last year amounted to 4 billion, also due to the suspension of payments agreed to deal with the difficult financial situation of families, businesses and professionals due to the Covid emergency.
Automated controls
The distraction in compiling or reviewing tax returns, therefore, ends up costing dearly to taxpayers who in the vast majority of cases commit only formal errors and who are anything but inveterate evaders. So much so that to “flush them out” the tax authorities resort to so-called automated controls. In other words, the declarations presented by taxpayers are passed through the “machines” and invites taxpayers to present documentation that demonstrates the right to a tax discount or a deduction from the tax base.
The risk analysis and the target of 14.8 billion for 2022
Automated checks and the clearance of declarations to find formal errors, as mentioned, are only part of the action to combat tax evasion. The main objective in the Organizational Revenue Plan remains that of detecting fraud above all with targeted actions and on the basis of specific risk indicators. The target indicated by the Revenue Director, Ernesto Maria Ruffini, for 2022 is to recover 14.8 billion euros from tax evasion. And this is thanks above all to the optimization of controls in tax matters and the adoption of joint initiatives with the Finance Police and other foreign administrations to strengthen the analysis activities. The strategy indicated is that of contrasting the subtraction of tax bases from the imposition, territorially mapping evasive phenomena and preparing the respective intervention plans also in an integrated manner.
Main objectives the building bonuses
The activity to combat tax evasion in 2022 will focus above all on tax credits and benefits not due or unduly used by taxpayers, with the preventive suspension of the F24 payment proxies and related compensation. An activity that will be based on five predefined risk indicators with which the tax offices will be able to discard the proxies in the odor of fraud and above all to block the transfer of credits from building bonuses. Among the new indicators based on the risk analysis, the one for the verification and control of credit transfer communications and the options for the discount on the invoice for redevelopment, safety or renovation of buildings stands out.