Taxation: confrontation with business associations underway – Economy

The second day of discussions between the government and the social partners on tax reform began shortly after 9.30 am. After the trade unions, met yesterday, today the representatives of companies and professional orders are summoned to Palazzo Chigi starting from Confindustria, Abi, Confapi, Confimi, Confartigianato, Cna, Casartigiani, Cia, Confcommercio, Confesercenti, Federdistribuzione, Federterziario, Confeservizi, Coldiretti, Confagricoltura, Copagri. Afterwards, from 11, it will be the turn of Ania, Ance, Confedilizia, Alleanza Cooperative, Confcooperative, Unicoop, Cndcec (Accountants), National Council of the Order of Labor Consultants, Confprofessioni, Assoprofessioni, ANTI (Italian Tax Lawyers). The government is represented by the Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, by the Deputy Minister, Maurizio Leo and by the Undersecretary to the Prime Minister, Alfredo Mantovano.

It’s a tax dispute. Cgil, Cisl and Uil, once again united, reject the plan of the reform, protesting first of all the method but also the merit.

The government is preparing to bring the enabling bill to the Council of Ministers on Thursday, opens the round of meetings with the social partners by receiving the unions at Palazzo Chigi – Wednesday morning will be the turn of business and category associations and professional orders –relaunches the scope of the structural intervention: “a revolution” 50 years after the last comprehensive reform dating back to the 1970s. But the trade unions are not there: so far, they are attacking, and 48 hours after the convening of the CDM there has not been a “true” confrontation, but only an “informative one”. And, in the absence of answers, not only on the taxman but also on other open issues – from pensions to safety at work – they say they are ready to evaluate mobilization initiatives. Including the CISL. After the CGIL and UIL strike, their relations had remained colder. Now the positions converge towards unity of action.

A stance that comes on the eve of the CGIL congress, which opens today in Rimini, where the Prime Minister will also speak from the stage on Friday, Giorgia Meloni. The wait is on her intervention. The government, meanwhile, it ensures “maximum openness to dialogue and comparison” throughout the parliamentary process of approving the tax delegation and subsequent implementing decrees, considering that there are two years available. The question, for the unions, is about dialogue but also about the contents, even if at the moment completely “summary”, they attack.

In fact, they do not like the path of reducing personal income tax rates, from 4 to 3 brackets, and the extension of the flat tax. At the table at Palazzo Chigi with the Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, the Deputy Minister Maurizio Leo and the Undersecretary to the Prime Minister, Alfredo Mantovano, there is no shortage of a lively exchange. For the unions there are the deputy general secretary of the CGIL, Gianna Fracassi, the leader of the CISL, Luigi Sbarra, the confederal secretary of the UIL, Domenico Proietti. The number one of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini, is already in Rimini to prepare the opening of the congress, the leader of the UIL, Pierpaolo Bombardieri, in Florence for an assembly already scheduled previously.

The meeting with the government “didn’t go well either on the merits or on the method. This is really not going. There was no involvement and we do not agree either on the Irpef reduction, because it favors high and very high incomes, or on the flat tax, which is outside the dimension of progressivity envisaged by the Constitution”, Fracassi affirms at the exit. CGIL , Cisl and Uil, which have long had a unified platform on taxation, insist on the need to reduce taxes starting from medium and low incomes from work and retirement and from “those who pay them down to the last cent”, insists Sbarra, which underlines the “inadequacy” of the method and the “urgency” of having answers. “We need to speed up the discussion on social security, health and safety, quality and job stability. If the government responds, fine; otherwise we are ready to evaluate the mobilization initiatives to be put in place together with the CGIL and UIL”. Another crucial issue is the fight against tax evasion, which the government intends to “pursue vigorously”, also aiming to encourage the return of capital, to simplify obligations and in general to achieve “a friendly taxman”. The 20 billion recovered this year should go to workers and pensioners and to cut the wedge by 5 points already this year and not over the term, argues Uil. The government responds to the unions by re-launching the objective of a reform “as concrete and shared as possible” but also by noting that the intervention aims to favor dependent work, as well as reduce the tax burden for companies.

On taxation, “the Government has an ambitious plan to make an overall reform”, “on the merits there is more than something concerning work but we will then have to intervene in detail when we have a definitive text”, he said, after the meeting at Palazzo Chigi with the trade unions on tax delegation, the general secretary of theAlso Paolo Capone “There is a set of interventions in favor of work that seem to us in line with the requests we have made, but we will have to see them written in detail and then we will make an assessment”.