With the new rules based on tax compliance, tax controls are destined to reduce in the coming years
Life will be increasingly difficult for those who are accustomed to cheating and hiding their earnings from the tax. L’Revenue Agency has always been, and understandably, reluctant to rely on the civic sense of Italians, and for this reason for many years now it has unleashed the various organs of the Financial Administration, to verify that taxpayers’ declarations are not mendacious and that they fully comply with the tax obligations provided for by law.
The strategies introduced by the government
Without surveillance and monitoring, the rate of tax evasion in Italy it would be much higher than the current one, which is already significant in itself. The strategies that the government has adopted in recent years have always been increasingly aimed at preventing tax defaults rather than sanctioning them. This is obviously an ambitious goal, but not unrealistic. The government’s plan is to increasingly intensify cooperation between theFinancial administration and citizens, based on mutual trust.
The digitalization of services (for example the electronic invoice) and the system of pre-compiled statementsavoid the tax authorities having to carry out millions of checks, reducing the monitoring work through adequate prevention systems. In the future, further remedies will be promoted to encourage the spontaneous compliance of the taxpayer also through the so-called tax compliance.
This mechanism has led the public administration to send millions of letters reporting irregularities in the compilation of declarations, in order to avoid resorting to the issuing of enforcement notices or sending the payment slips. Compliance letters are nothing more than a system to warn taxpayers that they have made errors in completing the return, inviting them to comply by paying the amount due.
According to PIAO (Integrated Activity and Organization Plan) to combat tax evasion, the Revenue Agency has foreseen for the three-year period from 2024 to 2026, a total number of 320,000 checks on as many taxpayers to verify the correct payment of direct taxes, VAT, IRAP, registration tax and other taxes.
The chances of being checked are relatively low
From an operational point of view, the collection body expects to recover something like 11 billion euros every year. These will be targeted checks which will target all those categories of subjects at risk of evasion. A well-defined and detailed monitoring activity will be aimed at large businesses and multinational companies whose turnover exceeds 750 million euros per year. Mechanisms for spontaneous compliance by the taxpayer will be supported and facilitated through the introduction of the biennial composition with creditors.
According to the data set out above, the chances of being subjected to tax controls or audits are not high, taking into account that Italian employees are overall 23 million both public and private. Almost 23 million are pensioners while around 4 and a half million have VAT numbers. In total the mass of taxpayers amounts to 50 million individuals.
