“Our battle over the Imu is a battle for freedom. 80% of Italian families own the house they live in and base the certainty of their future on the house. This is why we will never fail in our commitment to the Imu”. Silvio Berlusconi writes this in a note, after a heated clash had taken place in the last few hours between the Treasury - which advises against the complete abolition of the tax for reasons of social equity and for the maintenance of public accounts - and several admirals of the Pdl, who anticipated the line of the leader.
The total abolition of the Imu on first homes “is a fundamental commitment of the government agreement with President Letta – continues the Cavaliere -, but it is also and above all the fundamental stimulus for restarting our economy. Already in 2008 our government canceled the ICI and the commitment we made in the last electoral campaign, the same commitment which is the basis of the agreement that led to the formation of the government of broad agreements, is clear: the Imu on the first house and on the land and buildings functional to agricultural activities you no longer have to pay. From 2013 and for all the years to come”.
On the nature of the government agreement, the Deputy Minister of Economy Stefano Fassina (Pd) had already recalled that "Letta, when he took office, promised a reform of the Imu to help those who have less", therefore not all taxpayers. “There aren't the resources to do everything – continued Fassina -. The PDL wants to burn them so as not to charge the Imu even to those who have a house 400 meters away in the center of Rome. How will they then present themselves to the Italians to say that there is no euro for the redundant workers and the unemployed?”.
The Imu was introduced with the Salva-Italia decree of December 2011, i.e. the first ever measure of the Monti government, launched with the decisive votes of the Pdl, which at the time was the only numerically indispensable party for the majority.
At the time, Cavaliere's opinion on the single municipal tax was quite different from today's: “Monti has hinted that he will bring property taxation in line with the European average, while now it is below it – he said in a interview with Corriere della Sera on 20 November 2011 –. It is possible that this will lead to the introduction of a tax similar to the ICI, which we already envisaged with federalism, but completely different from the previous approach already in our reform. Therefore, continuity of line with our government, probably ahead of time compared to 2014, which we had foreseen”.
