A hundred spy indicators to unmask tax evaders: boats, cars, children's colleges, cell phones, vet expenses, the gym and even donations to charity. The basic concept is simple: if a jeweler declares to the tax authorities that he earns 18 euros a year – as happens in Italy – then he has to get around the city in a small car, not a Porsche. This kind of comparison is the basis of the new income meter, which should make it possible to track down tax evaders by comparing lifestyles and declared incomes. The Revenue Agency has been working on it for some time now and the idea is to create a double tool: one for the controller and one for the controlled, who will be able to demonstrate in advance the consistency between expenses and income, thus avoiding further checks.
"We are working on it, I hope soon" to have it available, said the director of the Revenue Agency, Attilio Befera, before the Finance Committee of the Chamber. “I prefer to delay a bit but have an effective tool. We are doing two forms of income meter, one for preventive selection and one for control activities".
There is a delay, and it's not small. The presentation of the income meter was last October 25 and the experimentation was supposed to end in June. Instead it is still ongoing. It remains to understand what weight to attribute to each indicator and what should be the minimum difference between presumed and declared income that triggers the controls. But there are also those who would like to avoid bothering the Italians too much. After all, the electoral campaign has already begun.
