The first database of the tax justice of merit, a project aimed at making tax disputes in tax jurisprudence more transparent and accessible, not only for the Revenue Agency but also for taxpayers, through a free, public and online consultation.
So far, the following have been published: 329,316 sentences, the so-called digital natives, pseudo-anonymized and filed between 2021 and 2023, concerning only the first and second degree. The implementation is already underway to allow the search for orders issued by tax justice bodies referring them to higher courts, such as the Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation and the Court of Justice of the European Union.
What the database is and how it works
The database allows citizens to easily access tax disputes filed between 2021 and 2023. The official website explains: “It is based on an innovative digital platform that offers simplified and intuitive access” and concerns the “tax rulings of first and second degree“. The initiative was partly financed with European funds as part of a project in which the Presidential Council of Tax Justice also participated.
Implementations of the system are already underway that aim to allow not only the search for orders issued by tax justice bodies referring cases to higher courts – such as the Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation and the Court of Justice of the European Union – but also the possibility, once an agreement has been reached with the Supreme Court of Cassation, to verify the possible presence of the appeal of legitimacy and the related decision regarding the judgment on the merits under consultation.
To access the service you need to go to the site bancadatigiurisprudenza.giustiziatributaria.gov.it and then click on “Consult the Database”. At that point a page opens where you can start with the search such as specific words, number and year of the sentence, value of the dispute, outcome of the judgment, matter and costs incurred.
What is Prodigit?
The system, called Prodigit and supported with 8 million euros of Pon and React EU funding, was developed in collaboration between the Mef and the Presidency Council of Tax Justice. The project is ambitious: to modernize the jurisdiction recently reformed with Law 130/2022 and Legislative Decree 220/2023, to implement transparency and allow all parties to know the progress of the case law on the merits.
This tool has been strongly requested by tax professionals, who have repeatedly urged the Ministry to grant access to the database to promote equality between the parties in the tax process. Fiorenzo Sirianni, director general of the tax justice department, underlined this aspect during his hearing at the Senate Finance Committee last February. “This is a very important principle,” Sirianni explained, “because it strengthens the right to equality within the tax process between the taxpayer and the tax authority. Obviously, professionals and citizens will be able to be aware of this information wealth that ensures a greater right to defense”.
Tax professionals have been asking the authorities for a better system for some time transparent which would promote equality between all parties in the tax process, i.e. the taxpayer and the tax authorities. Many underlined how the Revenue Agency could access the contents of tax rulings in a simpler and more immediate way than taxpayers, who only had the rulings published in sector magazines and collections at their disposal, often through the mediation of their lawyers. For this reason, the database has been made free and freely accessible.
