For the Tari I ended up paying up to 1,300 euros. So this year I halved the surface area of the shop. And, given the Municipality’s decision to increase it, I really think I did well.” Angela Menghetti, owner of the Odeon boutique, a business that has been operating since 1976, in Marina centro, is a trader from Rimini who, faced with the weight of the waste tax, decided to operate strategically. «Taxes eat up a large part of the proceeds – she comments resentfully – so, given that the Tari is paid based on the surface area of the property and not on the rubbish produced, I acted accordingly, downsizing the 110 square meter space. to 55 m2. Let’s see how much I’ll pay now! Increasingly indigestible taxes, therefore. Despite the fact that the municipal administration, through the use of financial resources seized from the fight against tax evasion, did everything to sterilize the increase, limiting it to +4.15%. Compared to what was initially established by Atersir, the Emilia Romagna territorial agency for water services and waste. «This commitment from the Municipality is good – the trader points out -. But we have an infinite number of taxes and other obligatory expenses. For example, like all my colleagues, in addition to the Tari, I pay the tax on advertising, 138 euros a year, the company books, 550 euros, registration with the Chamber of Commerce, another 300 euros a year, the new speed for access to the tax box, 65 euros. And then the Imu, the additional Irpef, the Irap, without considering the 22% VAT on each item sold. I don’t pay the shade tax because the tent is on private property, otherwise I would have had to pay that too. And luckily the shop is mine because otherwise I really don’t know how I would have done it. There are months in which I can’t even pay my salary, despite working seven days on boobs.”
The math to do
It’s the other side of business. The one that no one sees, but which, instead, exists and concerns many Rimini traders. «The crisis is there and we all feel it – confirms Menghetti -. This is why when I hear about tax evasion and see the finger pointed at us traders I feel sorry. Because that’s not the case. Many, for example, faced with the choice of having to pay the supplier or the taxes, prefer to settle the bill with the supplier, because the goods allow business continuity, without which there would be closure. You call this escapism? Not to mention the Covid period, which really weighed heavily on the budgets: a week before the outbreak of the pandemic I purchased goods for 55 thousand euros which, due to the forced closure of two months, from 10 March to 18 May, remained unsold”. But the Tari is and will remain the most unbearable expense. The shopkeeper confirms: «I’ll just tell you this. I produce waste twice a year: when the summer goods arrive and then the winter goods. In that case there are cartons and some containers to dispose of. Then that’s it. Because the coat hangers, which are no longer needed, I pass on to hotels, which use them in wardrobes, and I give the nylon or plastic clothes covers to some private individuals. Does it seem normal to you to have had to pay 1,300 euros for years?”.
