A new practice to combat tax evasion is starting today. Banks and financial companies will begin to send the Revenue Agency identification numbers and movements of all financial relationships with Italian taxpayers. This will create a new database, which will be operational from the end of October.
In particular, the numbers will be provided on the balances and movements recorded in 2011 in all banking and financial relationships held by operators with customers on current accounts, deposit accounts, savings deposits, asset management, mutual funds, derivatives, guarantees, funds pension, credit cards, purchase or sale of gold and precious and safety deposit boxes. All the data for 31 must be communicated by 2011 October, those for 2014 by the end of March 2012 and those for 2014 by October 2013.
The Privacy Guarantor has demanded that the entire process guarantee maximum protection of confidentiality: banks and intermediaries will have to entrust the transmission of data to officials responsible for the processing of personal data. As for the "shielded" accounts, the Revenue Agency should issue a specific circular: the laws on the return of capital to Italy provided for anonymity, which is why the banks could limit themselves to indicating only their existence.
Until now, tax inspectors could only access bank account data if they had first started a formal investigation on the basis of well-founded suspicions. Starting from October, however, the relationship will be reversed: the assessment will be triggered precisely on the basis of the new data on current accounts.
The Revenue Agency will start from these numbers to prepare "specific selective lists of taxpayers at greater risk of evasion". However, inspectors will not be able to use the database indiscriminately to verify the data of individual citizens regardless of the formal verification procedure.
