An internal Treasury document estimates the capital of the Bank of Italy, currently indicated at 156.000 euros, not exceeding 7 billion and the potential revenue from the revaluation for the State "very uncertain" and certainly not feasible in the current year.
The report dedicated to the "state of the public finances for 2013" says that "the amount of the revaluation would probably be between 5 and 7 billion, therefore much lower than estimates circulated recently". As for the potential income, the experts of the Economy express strong doubts.
In fact, if the revaluation were mandatory and entailed the obligation to pay a substitute tax, the entire operation would not pass the scrutiny of the European Central Bank and the Commission because it would take the form of monetary financing of the Treasury.
“Bank of Italy reserves would be transferred to share capital, to then oblige the participants in the capital to pay a part of it to the Treasury in the form of a tax”, observe the Treasury experts.
On the other hand, if the revaluation were voluntary, subject to the payment of a substitute tax, the revenue would be difficult to estimate ex ante. In fact, the revenue would depend on the accounting treatment of the shareholdings in the capital of the Bank of Italy.
"If, for example, banks account for them among fixed investments, the ordinary tax treatment is the irrelevance of the revaluation (as well as the devaluation) and, in the event of a sale, the taxation in Ires (at 27,5%) of the 5% of the realized capital gain: in practice the effective rate on the capital gain on disposal is 1,365%. To be attractive, the substitute tax connected to the voluntary revaluation should have a rate lower than 1,365%”.
The capital of the Bank of Italy is divided into 300.000 shareholdings. The list of shareholders includes the main Italian banks such as Intesa Sp, Unicredit, Montepaschi and Carige. Large non-banking shareholders are Generali and Inps.
