"The gaming sector has grown, reaching 4% of GDP, but tax revenues have seen a contraction, even if the regulations introduced have increased the tax burden". This was stated by the Deputy Economy Minister Enrico Zanetti, speaking on Tuesday at the conference "Gaming and Taxation" organized in Rome by Eurispes and LexandGaming.
“It is crucial to try to realign trends that appear irreconcilable – continued Zanetti – and we have the possibility of maneuvering in the gray area, also due to online. The action on the virtual that the Guardia di Finanza and institutions are carrying out must be made more systematic and certain, with measures compatible with international practices. We also need to have a little courage in innovation: on the control front, we have a reluctance to be innovators when it comes to rules and the level of international evasion. Legislation in the sense of virtual anti-avoidance on the national and international front must see the light within 2017”.
For Gian Maria Fara, president of Eurispes, we must not “demonize or criminalize a sector that contributes significantly to state revenue. The goal is a game that is free from criminal mortgages and any possibility of money laundering. The State must exercise the role of regulation and surveillance, because if the market is left free or entrusted to a hypothetical self-discipline it tends to overflow".
As for the proposal by the Undersecretary for the Economy Pierpaolo Baretta, which aims to eliminate gaming machines in shops such as bars and tobacconists for the benefit of dedicated rooms, Fara said he "quite agreed: the indiscriminate diffusion of gaming machines is an incentive for their use by younger people, as well as pensioners or housewives, especially in times of economic crisis. Playing is fine, but it shouldn't become a mission."
According to Giovambattista Palumbo, director of the Eurispes Observatory on Fiscal Policies, “we must look today at the sectors that are evolving when we talk about tax evasion. The digital tax aims to provide regulatory transparency in relation to the permanent establishment in Italy. That of the gaming sector is a complex regulation at a fiscal level: today we have regulatory instruments that are starting to be adapted, even if the implementing decrees of the Revenue Agency are missing, which I hope will arrive soon. Without forgetting the tool of training, which must always be kept high".
