“Reinstating a tax on real estate and reducing Irpef and Irap is the way to shift the tax burden from production to income. Furthermore, by reducing the list of goods and services currently taxed with reduced VAT rates, the tax burden can be shifted a little more from production to consumption, thus affecting imports more and relieving exports”. This is the recipe proposed by Innocenzo Cipolletta, elected today at the helm of Assonime, the association of Italian joint-stock companies, replacing Maurizio Sella. The latter, having reached the end of his second term and therefore no longer renewable, becomes honorary president and remains on the Governing Council as a member by right.
VAT: REDUCE THE STANDARD RATE AND CUT EXEMPTIONS
“It is a question of a fiscal devaluation that Germany made at the beginning of this millennium – continues Cipolletta – and that everyone in Italy has admired. Why can't it be done by us? I know the answer, but I'm not giving up. This means doing our duty: representing solutions that seem right to us, even if they are politically difficult”.
With reference to VAT, Cipolletta then specified that “the standard rate should be reduced by reducing the exemptions. Obviously the world of distribution is against it and many specific lobbies are, but in the end what is the best solution? A normal VAT below 22% and few exemptions. Many will also protest among Assonime members”.
GOVERNMENT AND GROWTH
As for government activity, according to Cipolletta, the Minister of Economy, Pier Carlo Padoan, "has done wonders to reconcile the need to respect European constraints with the need not to further depress the economy". However, in the absence of further reforms, for the new president of Assonime "it is difficult to imagine that our country can grow much beyond that ceiling of 1% of GDP per year which in the last two years has been a difficult limit to overcome, also due to the many impediments that hinder the proper functioning of the markets and business activity”.
PUBLIC SPENDING
On the side of public spending, “Italy is the country that more than others has contained expenditure over the last few years – Cipolletta underlines – especially if we refer to spending net of interest. Compared to GDP, it is now equal to the euro area average. In the period 2009-2016, the increase in spending was 3,8% against 12,8% in the EU (15,3% in France, 21,6% in Germany, 10% in the United Kingdom). Cuts were made where possible and not always where necessary: investment spending fell by 35% in 2009-2016, public personnel by 4%, pension spending by 13%”.
SOCIAL SECURITY SAVINGS
Also for this reason, the new number one of Assonime believes that it would be appropriate to encourage pension savings, which in Italy now amount to over 200 billion, "through a lower tax burden and allowing for greater use in companies, given that it is now more aimed at financing public debt and real estate assets. Retirement savings in other countries make up the largest institutional investor in the real economy. They are patient investors, because they invest in the medium and long term, just what businesses need to be able to grow”.
THE CONTROL OF COMPANIES
Again with reference to businesses, Cipolletta underlined that control, an important factor for their management, “cannot become a limit to their growth. We need companies that, where there is a profit to grow, know how to become public companies in the Anglo-Saxon sense of the term". The Boards of Directors, concluded Cipolletta, must respect the market structures more: a sufficiently large number of "truly independent" directors is needed.
PADOAN: IN EUROPE I DON'T BEAT MY FISTS ON THE TABLE
“Beating my fists on the table is not in my character. If something is achieved in Europe, it is because Italy shows that it is doing its duty and respecting the rules”. This was stated by Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan at the Assonime Assembly, observing that “the climate in Europe is changing in the right direction, also thanks to the result of the elections in France”.
OTHER NEWS IN ASSONIME
The Assonime assembly also renewed the Board of Directors, which included Paolo Astaldi, Franco Bassanini, Gilberto Benetton, Alberto Bombassei, Alessandro Buzzi, Fabio Cerchiai, Claudio Costamagna, Carlo De Benedetti, Sandro De Poli, Matteo Del Fante, Marco Drago, Gabriele Galateri di Genola, Luca Garavoglia, Gioia Ghezzi, Francesco Giordano, Patrizia Grieco, Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, Pietro Guindani, Gaetano Maccaferri, Andrea Moltrasio, Carlo Pesenti, Alessandro Profumo, Giuseppe Recchi, Gianfelice Rocca, Pietro Salini, Carlo Salvatori, Pierluigi Stefanini, Pio Teodorani Fabbri, Massimo Tononi.
The new Board was also appointed, while the Board of Auditors was confirmed. Green light also to the cost estimate for the two-year period 2017-2018.
The private assembly was preceded by the Association council, which approved the 2016 budget, which recorded a management surplus of 121 euros. Finally, the junta discussed the second report of the working group "A single digital market for Europe", coordinated by Franco Bassanini, entitled "The Digital Single Market Strategy halfway through: objectives, tools and implementation".
Attachments: Speech by President Cipolletta
