In the Italian geography of fight against tax evasionsometimes size matters less than skills. It proves it Vasiaa tiny municipality in the Imperia hinterland with just 350 inhabitants and much loved by German tourists, which in 2024 grossed more than double that of Rome thanks to reports of unpaid taxes. A result that stands out when compared with that of the capital, a city of 2 million 750 thousand residents.
According to data released by the Local Authorities Study Center, the Municipality of Rome collected 10,145 euros in 2024 for the recovery of evaded taxes that emerged thanks to municipal reports. The legislation provides that local authorities are entitled to 50% of the sums definitively collected by the tax authorities. In the same period, Vàsia obtained 20,710 euros, more than double compared to Rome.
At the basis of the so-called “Vàsia model” there is a particular characteristic of local administration. The mayor, Mauro Casale, 50 years old, elected with a civic list, is also an employee of theRevenue Agency. A direct knowledge of the tax mechanisms that proved decisive. “The 20 thousand euros in proceeds come from a company that had proposed to the Municipality to do some work – explains Casale -. We discovered that it was making use of an advantageous tax regime that was not entitled to it. We reported it to the Guardia di Finanza and it had to pay”. As reported by Ansa, other recoveries came from the real estate sector. “There are people – says the mayor – who have bought land, obtained building permits and then resold them at a higher price, forgetting to pay taxes on the capital gains”.
However, Vàsia’s case remains isolated in a general framework that signals a progressive disengagement of the Municipalities in collaboration with the tax authorities. In seven years, the overall proceeds from municipal reports have more than halved, dropping to 2.5 million euros. In the previous two years the figure stood at around 3 million, well below the 6.7 million in 2021 and the 11.4 million in 2018. In the five-year period 2020-2024 the Municipalities allowed a total of 30.4 million euros to be recovered, compared to over 88 million in the period 2012-2016.
The change in the quota recognized to local authorities also affected the trend: initially set at 30%, then increased to 33% and subsequently to 50%, between 2012 and 2021 it reached 100%, to return to 50% from 2022. Precisely in the years in which the percentage was total, the maximum use of the instrument was recorded, so much so that today a new return to 100% is being considered. There are currently 304 beneficiary municipalities, less than 4% of the approximately 7,900 Italian local authorities. The territorial distribution confirms a clear imbalance in favor of the North. In the lead is Lombardy with 97 Municipalities and 1,009,938 euros of distribution, equal to approximately 40% of the national total. They follow Liguria with 442,290 euros and 15 Municipalities, Emilia-Romagna with 362,471 euros and 66 Municipalities, Tuscany with 300,454 euros and 17 Municipalities.
In the South and in the Islands the numbers remain marginal: Campania 7.306 euro, Puglia 1.495 euro, Sicily 6.791 euro, Sardinia 8,396 euros. A gap that mainly concerns administrative capacity, the organization of offices and the continuity of control activities. Looking at individual entities, the record goes to Genoa, which thanks to its reports has recovered over 800 thousand euros from the tax authorities and has collected 406 thousand. Followed by Milan with 376,490 euros, Prato with 170,122 euros, Turin with 113,888 euros, Florence with 105,628 euros, Brescia with 62,011 euros, Bergamo with 55,094 euros, Bologna with 48,127 euros and Cernusco sul Naviglio with 40,543 euros. “This data certifies the attention and commitment with which our administration has managed the Municipality of Genoa”, commented the president of the Liguria Region Marco Bucci, mayor of the capital until December 2024.
Finally, the paradoxes remain: Barithe tenth Italian city by population, does not appear among the municipalities benefiting from the distribution. And the comparison between Rome and micro-realities like Vàsia continues to tell of an Italy in which, in the fight against tax evasion, size is not everything.
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