The director of the Revenue Agency: in 2022 recovered over 20 billion of tax evasion, it is the most important result ever. In the majority there are two fronts on fiscal peace
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The leader of the League and Matthew Salvini returns to ride one of his warhorses: «a great and definitive fiscal peace», said the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, on Sunday 16 July, and then reiterated today: «A fiscal peace for those who have made their declarations but have not managed to pay them all is an advantage for the State which collects a tidal wave of billions from use for salaries and pensions and means a liberation for 15 million people”.
Meanwhile, the director of the Revenue Agency, Ernesto Maria Ruffini recalls the results obtained last year in the fight against tax evasion: «In 2022 we recovered overall the record figure of over 20 billion tax evasion. The most important result ever » she declared. Speaking at the conference “Let’s make Italy simple” Ruffini explained that through letters of compliance, “we have returned 3.2 billion euros to the state budget”, while through anti-fraud activities “we have managed to intercept or block 9, 5 billion euros”.
“Fiscal peace for those who have made the declarations but have not managed to pay them all is an advantage for the State which collects a tide of billions to be used for salaries and pensions and means a liberation for 15 million people”. Thus, in Cagliari, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini once again re-launched the issue of fiscal peace: «To date, there are 15 million Italians who have filed their tax returns, but have an account opened with the ‘Revenue Agency – he underlined – I cannot think that a third of Italians, with the exception of minors, are people who have had a problem with the taxman, they have not been able to pay everything they owed. They should be helped not convicted, otherwise we will always have second-class citizens. Then – concluded Salvini – the total tax evaders as far as I’m concerned go to jail”.
“The legislator decides on times and methods”
“Ours is an essential job for the functioning of the whole public machine – explained Ruffini -: if we want to guarantee the fundamental rights of the person indicated and protected in our Constitution – the health of citizens, the education of our children, the safety of all of us – resources are needed and we are called to collect them for the benefit of all. Even of those who evade their payment ». To then add: «We are all called to do it in the forms, ways and times that are always and only established by the legislator, not by the Revenue Agency».
“The fight against evasion is not the will to persecute”
“The fight against evasion is not the will to persecute someone,” adds the director of the Revenue Agency. “It is a fact of justice towards all those who, and they are the vast majority, pay taxes year after year”, he underlined. “Ours is an essential job for the functioning of the whole public machine – Ruffini underlines – because if we want to guarantee the fundamental rights of the person indicated and protected in our Constitution, resources are needed”.
«By the end of 2024 around 11,000 new revenue resources»
«In recent years – continued Ruffini – we too have had to deal with the issue of personnel shortages. In 2012, at the time of the incorporation of the Territorial Agency, the total staffing endowment of the Revenue was approximately 41,000 units. Since that year, also due to the block on turnover, the total number of employees has been in continuous decline, reaching less than 28 thousand units as at 31 December 2022. We are talking about 13 thousand fewer resources in ten years: the 30 percent. If we consider that the agency’s staff is approximately 44,000 units, the gap is close to 40%». And again: “Now, finally, we can begin to look to the future with the prospect of a strengthened workforce, thanks to the extraordinary plan authorized by the Budget law which will allow us to count on around 11,000 new resources by the end of 2024”. the director announced, explaining that “of these, 2,303 were hired in the first half of 2023 and other colleagues will arrive in the coming months”.
Leo: change direction under assessment, high tax gap
The deputy minister at the MEF pointed the way, Maurice Leo : «It is understood that we need to change direction in the assessment: today we have a tax gap that fluctuates between 75 and 100 billion and is high, we have to fight it with other forms such as the arrangement with creditors, which does not mean letting our guard down. The fight against evasion must be done and we will do it in the most effective way possible, but we must do it with new means», he said speaking at the conference “Let’s make Italy simple” referring to electronic invoices and artificial intelligence, «to tell the taxpayer what his income is without giving discounts to anyone».
Tajani: FI against amnesties, but yes to fiscal peace
«Forza Italia is against any kind of amnesty. We have always been in favor of a fiscal peace and I am very pleased that the Lega and Salvini choose to follow us on this plan”, said the deputy prime minister and foreign minister finally, Antonio Tajani , guest at Sky Start, on SkyTg24. «In the fiscal delegation there is already a first step in this direction», added Tajani, «fiscal peace is naturally a peace in which a large part of the debt one owes is paid, always only by those who are in good standing, not by the offender”.
Pichetto Fratin: Do I forgive? Yes, it depends on the content
«Italy needs to make a major tax reform» and «on this step we need to intervene with facilitation mechanisms to close previous hirings. It is something that needs to be evaluated and it can be done. A pardon? Yes, it depends on the content. Amnesty must mean an assessment of who is able to pay, said Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto on the sidelines of the Utilitalia meeting in Rome.
On fiscal peace «Minister Salvini expressed his thoughts. I believe that an important job is being done on the scrapping. The quater scrapping is a measure that moves us towards a reform of the sanctioning system which allows, for those who are late in paying or have not made them, to move towards a system more in keeping with European practice”, explained the Minister for Public administration, Paul Zangrillo. «I think – he continued – that the President of the Republic is right when, in his speech at the end of the year, he says that the Republic is in the civic sense of the people who pay taxes. The first rule is that taxes must be paid, then we must be capable, and this is one of the themes in this government’s programme, of simplifying our tax system to make it ever closer to the needs of our citizens as well”.
Maurizio Lupi: first approve the reform quickly
«Before talking about fiscal peace, the tax reform bill must be approved quickly, with particular attention to indirect taxation: we intervene immediately, before we intervene on fiscal peace, on the fact that indirect taxes can be imposed on citizens. The message we must give is clear: taxes must be paid because they are everyone’s contribution to making Italy better. But they must be fair and not become a burden on businesses and families. This is why we approved the tax reform bill, also with the help of a member of the opposition”, explained the leader of Noi Moderati Maurizio Lupi .
Pd, pact on reform broken, now it’s raining amendments
But the Pd on the tax delegation goes up on the barricades. «Today we consider the pact that had been made with the oppositions on the method of analysis broken and therefore we will present amendments on the tax reform, also on the part already addressed in the Chamber, because we consider the break by the majority to be serious. We had understood that there was a political agreement to give the two houses of Parliament the same working time with analyses, hearings, discussions with the social partners, but we are forbidden, instead asking for an unacceptable acceleration. Not only is it a humiliation of the role of Parliament but in this way political trust is lost”. So Francesco Boccia, leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate.
Revenue agency: 40% of posts uncovered
In recent years at Revenue Agency “We had to deal with the issue of personnel shortages,” Ruffini said. In 2012 «the overall staffing of the Revenue was around 41,000 units. Since that year, also due to the blockage of turnover, the total number of employees has been in continuous decline, reaching less than 28 thousand units as at 31 December 2022. If we consider that the Agency’s workforce is approximately 44 thousand units, the gap is close to 40%».