Beyond the programmatic declarations of the head of government on various occasions, of the Minister of the Economy in some public circumstances and of the undersecretary Luigi Casero in Parliament, which are so far the only fruits of the reorganization of the tax system envisaged by law 23/14, the implementation of the long-awaited fiscal delegation still appears on the high seas. Not that the deadlines for the presentation of draft legislative decrees have expired, the first of which is set just after mid-July; however, the impression is that the Department of Finance, which should be responsible for coordinating the drafting of the texts, is unable to proceed as it would be necessary, to implement the set of directive principles desired by Parliament with law 23.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, very attentive to the policy of announcements, has realized that things are not going as hoped: he had Undersecretary Casero tell him that the Government would already present the first tax simplification measure in May. The "forcing" evidently arose from electoral needs. But May 25th arrived without any text on the matter arriving from the Ministry of the Economy at Palazzo Chigi, for inclusion in the agenda of a meeting of the Council of Ministers.
To conceal the delays of the structures of the Economy, Renzi has shouldered the responsibility of the postponement: to allow for a better reflection on the things to do - he said - and better define the priorities in the implementation of the fiscal delegation (moreover, already communicated by Casero in Parliament in mid-March).
Thus Casero returned to the Finance Committees of the Chamber and the Senate together, but he only remixed the things already said previously, trying to give them a new aspect. The substance has not changed, the priorities have remained the same and, consequently, those who had believed the words spoken in Parliament by Renzi and by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Pier Carlo Padoan, at the time of the inauguration, were still disappointed of the new government.
On his debut as minister in the Montecitorio hall, Padoan had declared that “the primary objective of the enabling law is to confer stability and certainty to the tax system. Eliminating uncertainty is a fundamental element because, other things being equal, it favors the adoption of a longer-term time horizon. Thus, it improves the attitude to invest”. And he went on to point out the most significant points of the powers conferred on the Government: "the redefinition of the abuse of the law unified with that of avoidance, the review of criminal and administrative sanctions, the better functioning of litigation, the improvement of relations with taxpayers along the lines of cooperative compliance, proposed by the OECD”.
“The taxman must stop showing himself as an enemy and hostile towards taxpayers, to only instill fear – Renzi had stated in the Senate the day before -; rather, he must stand by their side to help them in the correct fulfillment of their tax obligations. Extremely harsh – he concluded – the tax authorities must only be towards those who really commit crimes ”.
At the center of both speeches in Parliament was the theme of relaunching the economy, the reforms to be implemented immediately to restart economic growth.
But here, after the first calendar for the implementation of the delegations and the second, reformulated with the in-depth study for which Renzi has blocked - according to him - the implementation works, the priorities stated appear anything but those necessary to accelerate the economic recovery. We will still have to wait for the new rules on the assessment, for the revision of sanctions, including criminal ones, and for the regulation of the abuse of rights, despite the fact that these are precisely the key measures to implement the principles set out at their debut in Parliament by Renzi and Padoan. The most important ones to give our tax system a new appeal, which makes it capable of not frightening too much, like now, international companies that want to come and invest in our country and not to entice our companies to emigrate abroad.
Instead, the priorities stated are aimed at minor aspects of the tax system, of little relevance to the Italian economy, even if with a greater media impact on the plurality of small taxpayers: the preparation of the pre-compiled 730, the reorganization of deadlines for compliance, the reform of the cadastre (moreover, the Ministry of the Economy has failed to present even this draft legislative decree, which should have been ready for years), electronic invoicing; as well as the reorganization of excise duties and the reorganization of public games.
The priority assigned to these measures derives, perhaps, from the usual attention from the media and somewhat populist which is understandable during the electoral campaign, but which should be brought back to its proper place when it comes to adopting economic policy initiatives.
But the real fear is that beyond the affirmations of principle, the Italian tax authorities are not capable, due to the political-cultural approach of their leaders as well as due to practical limitations in their ability to draw up the most complex and delicate legislative provisions, the purely juridical ones, to to pursue with conviction and decision the path of a reform that is not only a facade and amenity, but of the deeper and more crucial principles of the tax system as well as of the behavior of the offices called to apply it.
