The blitz of Finance in shops looking for tax receipts does not convince the former Finance Minister Francesco Forte. For an effective fight against evasion, the income meter is better. Furthermore, it is urgent to introduce the family quotient. This was stated by Forte himself, heard in the Senate Finance Committee in the context of the tax reform. The former minister takes his cue from recent news stories and has no difficulty explaining the reasons why income meter tool, as a criterion capable of presumptively determining income – as he himself had promoted when he was in office in via XX Settembre – is better placed to fight tax evasion.
Forte explains: "The inductive assessments, if conducted with objective parameters and previously disclosed to the taxpayers, make it possible to determine the taxable income more effectively than an action of assessment on tax receipts and receipts". The blitzes we have witnessed in recent days have had a great media effect, but "do not appear adequate for an effective fight against tax avoidance".
Furthermore, Forte points his finger at the current structure of the Irpef and relaunches the hypothesis of the family quotient. Professor Forte disputes that reducing the number of income tax rates can be a valid means of adapting the structure of the main tax to the quality and nature of income.
"The current structure of the rates, referring to the various brackets and with the application of the fragmented congestion of deductions and concessions, creates a system of continuous progression that loses the requirement of simplicity - argues Forte - and substantially makes both the definition of the base arbitrary the related tax is taxable". The numerous changes in the deductions for family members, introduced in the last ten years, "have caused the system to lose legibility and rationality" .
Forte pressed his hand on the need to give life to the family quotient, explaining that "the excessive fractionation of the articulations of the types of income and of the assessment techniques make an effective fight against tax evasion more difficult". Furthermore, the current vertical structure of Irpef taxable income gives a wholly unrealistic representation of household and business income.
Hence "the need and urgency of introducing the family quotient - completely consistent with a highly progressive structure of rates - capable of both taking into account the contribution that families provide in terms of widespread external economies, which cannot be substituted public, and to achieve effective horizontal equity with respect to the different levels of income”.
