General Andrea De Gennaro, from his observatory as commander of the Financial Police which turns 250 today, does he see Italy as a country allergic to respecting the rules?
«From our point of view, that of the only national police force with general competence in economic-financial matters, I would say no. Ours is a country of honest citizens who respect the rules, who contribute to collective development and growth with their daily commitment. However, there are illegal phenomena which, precisely because of the sector in which they affect, have greater visibility: from tax evasion to the distortion of competition rules, from tax credit scams to excise duty scams. They are quite extensive, and when they come to light they make us seem like a country of clever people. But we’re not.”
In the last year and a half you have discovered almost 9,000 total tax evaders, owners of businesses or self-employed workers who are completely unknown to the tax authorities. An alarming fact that could be the tip of the iceberg?
«It’s difficult to say what’s underneath, but it’s certainly a very insidious phenomenon. In general, tax evasion is decreasing, however a large number of people are emerging who, despite producing income, have never paid a cent to the treasury, thanks to fictitious residences abroad or new models of digital economy, such as the development of platforms telematic intermediation in the sale of goods and services, various forms of online commerce, or the so-called influencers. These are types of work that are in the process of expanding and which we have begun to investigate starting from the analysis of current accounts, and in which we will invest more and more resources. Also because the discovery of total tax evaders brings a double advantage.”
Which?
«The collection of taxes due in the past and the reporting to the Tax Office of a new taxpayer for the future. It happened that some of these people, who earn through TikTok or other social networks, candidly admitted that they didn’t know they had to pay taxes on those earnings, as if that wasn’t a job. Instead it is, and with the tax reform we are studying which income category it should be included in.”
The scourge of gangmastering and illegal work, which in some cases can even kill, has once again become dramatically relevant. What are you doing to fight it?
«The fight against undeclared work is one of our priorities, as demonstrated by the approximately 60,000 undeclared or irregular workers discovered since the beginning of last year. And we pay constant attention to the so-called gangmastering, due to the evident connotations of economic-financial, as well as social, danger. In the same period of time we identified around 200 people, both reported and arrested, held responsible for exploitation, noting in several cases a close connection between gangmastering and other illegal phenomena; for example illicit supply of labor disguised as service contracts. Countering this situation means not only protecting workers, who are the main victims, but also guaranteeing fair competition between economic operators, preventing a race to the bottom played on the skin of the weakest”.
From the perspective of your work as “tax evader hunters”, can the income meter be dispensed with?
«We must agree on the meaning of the term. It can constitute a further tool available to the financial administration, provided that it is used in a thoughtful manner, in the face of abnormal situations, in which taxpayers apparently without income actually turn out to have large amounts of money. In any case, we have developed many other investigation and financial intelligence techniques, thanks to which we are able to achieve important results even without the income meter. Also in this way we contribute to creating a correct relationship of trust between the tax authorities and citizens”.
Is there a need?
«Of course, because greater collaboration from citizens remains the first weapon against tax evasion. Together with civic and social education, which should start from schools, to instill the principle that taking resources away from the State, understood not as an abstract entity but as a group of citizens, has negative consequences that impact the community. Because it means taking away resources intended for others. Those who evade taxes are unfair to others, receive an undue profit, and activate a mechanism of unfair competition that distorts the market and generates social as well as economic consequences.”
What results has the fight against scams related to Citizenship Income given?
«Since it was introduced we have ascertained over 600 million euros of contributions received unduly, thanks to more than 67,000 targeted checks which in over 80 percent of cases allowed irregularities to be detected. This means that the measure could probably have been studied and applied better, but I would like to express a more general concept: if any government passes a measure in favor of certain categories of citizens and this leads to fraud and irregularities, the problem is who implements and profits from fraud, not the measure itself”.
A concept that can also apply to the funding of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, and the alarms on the infiltration and appetites of criminal organizations. What emerges from your checks?
«In the last year and a half we have conducted over 13,000 interventions to analyze financing in the PNRR area for over 9 billion euros. The infiltrations of organized crime are obviously always around the corner, but in the meantime, from some investigations coordinated by the European Prosecutor’s Office, real unitary directions have emerged to prepare requests for financing in the name of several companies scattered throughout the country, accompanied by financial statements and falsified tax returns in order to benefit from the grants. In these cases we have not limited ourselves to complaints and seizures but have activated prevention mechanisms, with the aim of intercepting possible frauds before the financing is disbursed and blocking them, rather than looking for them afterwards”.
On the corruption front, the toll from 2023 to today is 257 arrests and over 3,000 people reported. Is it a growing phenomenon?
«The results of the enforcement action confirm that it continues to have important dimensions. Here there is certainly a strong component of organized crime which has long preferred to insinuate itself into the administrative and economic fabric rather than resorting to violent methods. Just think of how many municipal councils have been dissolved in recent years due to mafia infiltration, which often takes place through corruption mechanisms. And they concern all levels of public administration.”
But does the corrupt public official give in more out of fear or convenience?
«It depends on who proposes. If there is an organized and recognized criminal context, fear may prevail, but in general I believe more for convenience, unfortunately. And let’s return to the need for civic education, starting from schools.”
