Anyone who drives a custom-built, whizzes by on a sailing ship or gallops on horseback, but at the same time declares a few pennies to the taxman, get ready for a life of anguish. “The new income meter, intended as an assessment tool, is ready. We are in the process of approving the relative ministerial decree and therefore it will certainly be usable in January“. This was announced today by Attilio Befera, director general of the Revenue Agency, explaining that the new anti-evasion weapon will be used "with the utmost caution and only for striking differences between expenses and income".
It will apply to leave from the 2009 tax year and will take into account 100 items of expenditure and the residence of the citizen. In the basket - in addition to cars, boats and horses - also savings, bank transactions, contributions paid to insurance companies, mortgages and real estate works.
The so-called debuts today instead income test, or the software developed by the Agency to verify the consistency between family income and expenses incurred. Available on the Agency's website, the program can be downloaded "without leaving a trace on the web". (Download the redditest)
The Italians will thus be able to reproduce a tax inspection and for many of them nasty surprises are in store. Indeed, a simulation by the Agency shows that one in 5 families is at risk of escape. Only over 4,3 million tax returns (about 20% of the total) that are not consistent with the expenses incurred.
Predictably, "among the different categories of income, the rate of irregularity is higher in business income and self-employment income", the Agency reports. In the taxman's sights there are in particular "phenomena attributable to omitted or partially declared leases, as well as illegal income of employees".
However, Befera clarified that lack of consistency does not automatically mean evasion. There may be “a thousand justifications – reassured the number one of the Revenue Agency -, such as inheritances or donations”. The problem arises “only when there are big differences” and “significant expenses”. In any case, "the contradictory could lead the inconsistency to coherence, or it could reduce the inconsistency". Or frame the tax evaders.
