Today the match on the Imu should finally end, but the solution probably won't be painless. The second installment of the single municipal tax expires on December 16 and, to cancel it, the Council of Ministers is called to solve the cover puzzle.
Total elimination would result in a shortfall in the state coffers equal to 2,4 billion euros, which would drop to 2 if it were decided to charge the Imu su agricultural land and rural buildings. Forza Italia and Nuovo Centrodestra continue to demand that the stop affects all taxpayers, but the Treasury seems oriented towards excluding from payment only main houses and public housing.
According to the latest rumors, the funding could come from a measure that risks arousing violent controversy: the increase on Ires and Irap advances it would no longer concern only banks and insurance companies, but it would be extended to all businesses. The advances will have to be paid by 2 December and at the moment there is talk of an increase in the order of two or three percentage points.
The intervention was planned by a safeguard clause included in the decree law of the end of August which abolished the first Imu installment (which also speaks of yet another increase for excise duties on fuel starting from January), which at this point the Government could be forced to exercise, failing to find alternative solutions. In fact, the risk is of exceeding the dreaded limit of 3% for the deficit-GDP ratio established over twenty years ago in Maastricht.
Part of the coverage for the cancellation of the Imu could also come from another measure: the introduction of a further tax advance paid by banks and financial brokerage companies.
Furthermore, it is not yet clear the lost revenue to be returned to the Municipalities. The mayors ask to get back the entire sum, including the higher rates already approved for the current year. The difference would be around 500 million.
The decree that starts the process will also arrive on the CDM table today revaluation of the shares of the Bank of Italy, from which the Treasury, as Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni recently explained, expects a maximum benefit for the Treasury of 1,2 billion.
