In Italy the level of tax evasion remains very high, around 84 billion euros a year, although “our Financial Administration has 190 databases digitally connected to each other, archives that collect an incredible amount of tax information which, if appropriately cross-referenced, could determine with great precision the tax loyalty of each of the 43.3 million Italian taxpayers “. This was reported by the CGIA of Mestre, recalling that “just as an example, every year our tax authorities store 2.4 billion electronic invoices and 1.3 billion pieces of information on income and bonuses used by the Revenue Agency to prepare the pre-compiled declarations”.
With a tax administration that “has such a detailed tax registry, it should not be at all difficult to identify those who do not pay taxes” unless this “happens outside the ‘legal’ circuits. Otherwise, it seems understand, there is no valid database: the evader – observes the CGIA – has an excellent chance of remaining unpunished” and this “exceedingly penalizes those who pay taxes down to the last cent”.
For the association “the level of detail of the digital information in possession of our tax agencies is nothing short of “frightening”. If, among others, the Finance Department has records on “Dealer flow management”, “Payments via PagoPa “, “Vehicle database”, “VAT number observatory” and “Register and successions”, the Customs/Monopolies Agency also has the “Anti-fraud database”, “Accounting and excise duties”, “Controls in the excise and customs sector” , “Excise declarations”, “Customs operations for import and export”, “Game account registry”, “Bingo game” and “Lotto and lotteries”.
The State Property Agency, however, can count on the “Management of vehicles subject to seizure”, on “State/cultural federalism” and on the “Documentary flow for the management of purchases (Tenders)”. The Revenue-Collection Agency, however, also has in its digital “carnet” the “SET” (Tax Exemption System), “Esatto” (Carrying out collection activities), “Anti-money laundering”, “Foreclosure procedures”, “Bankruptcy management” , “Real estate auction notices” and “Archive of roles and folders”. Finally, the Revenue Agency also manages the database on “Non-repayable contributions”, “Concessions”, “Tax declarations”, “Refunds”, “Registration tax”, “VAT settlements”, “5 x 1,000” , “Urban cadastre plans”, “Real estate market observatory”, “Land and buildings census cadastre”, “Bank or postal details” and “International exchange of tax information”.
Region-by-region data
If in absolute terms the lost revenue affects the most populated regions which are also those where the concentration of economic activities is greatest – such as Lombardy with 13.6 billion euros of lost revenue, Lazio with 9.1, Campania with 7 .8 and Veneto with 6.5 – in percentage terms, obtained thanks to the ratio between the amount evaded for every 100 euros of tax revenue collected, it emerges, however, that the propensity for evasion mainly affects the regions of Southern Italy. In fact, in Calabria it is at 18.4 percent, in Campania at 17.2, in Puglia at 16.8 and in Sicily at 16.5. On the other hand, the territories most faithful to taxation are the Autonomous Province of Trento with an estimated evasion of 8.6 percent, Lombardy with 8 percent and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano with 7.7 percent . The national average is 11.2 percent.
In overall terms, Italy has 43.3 million taxpayers of which just over 42 million are natural persons (subjects to Irpef plus self-employed workers on a flat rate regime) and 1.3 million are legal persons. Among the 107 Italian provinces monitored by the CGIA, Rome has the highest number of Irpef taxpayers: 2.9 million people of which 1.7 million are employees, 904 thousand pensioners and 64,300 subjects with income from participation. Followed by Milan with 2.4 million, Turin and Naples both with 1.6, Brescia with 927,100, Bari with 828,500, Bergamo with almost 823 thousand and Bologna with 796,700. Finally, as regards joint-stock companies (Spa, Sapa, Srl, single-member Srl, Cooperatives, etc.), the available territorial distribution is only regional and Lombardy hosts the largest number of them with 259,805. Followed by Lazio with 183,800, Campania with 129,300 and Veneto with almost 106,800.
