Dino Pesole, correspondent of the Sole 24Ore, in his book "Il salasso", published by Castelvecchi, takes us by the hand into the tangled forest of the Italian fiscal paradox, with the crisis knocking on money on one side, and on the other a record escape, to form a tight grip around the chest of the honest taxpayer.
The goal of the writer is to indicate a road to that “tax compliance“, the spontaneous fulfillment of the payment of taxes, which has never seemed so far from our horizon as now.
We proceed step by step, passing through the excursus of the habit of tax avoidance by patrols of self-employed workers, the "recurring and embarrassing question: with or without?" (clearly we are talking about the invoice), frequently "directed by the plumber, the lawyer, the dentist, the building contractor" and, one might say, so on and so forth, to a plethora of conniving citizens who choose " a momentary, if illusory, benefit rather than exacting what should be due". A system, this of self-liquidation, which produces the disconcerting imbalance, a real drain, of our revenue, to which employees and retirees contribute 80%, who do not, however, hold more than 30% of the national wealth.
What Pesole invokes is a profound cultural subversion that passes "through the overturning of the conviction, still quite widespread, according to which those who escape in the end are smart to emulate", and, conversely, that whoever doesn't do it is a fool who pays taxes for all the otherwise.
But the change that we want to produce must necessarily go beyond the (more or less abstract, more or less feasible) yearning for the "affirmation of some principles of sound fiscal civilization" in the collective conscience of Italians, but must also pass through concrete measures , which will have to be taken by the next government, of whatever flag it is. Provisions that are based on the refusal of amnesties and amnesties, but which also know how to look beyond the simple, and sometimes more scenic than effective (see the case of the raids in Cortina), tightening of repressive measures.
For Pesole they are five "moves to change the tax system: simplicity, correctness, transparency, timeliness, rewards". And it is precisely the latter, the rewarding, the point on which he dwells the most: the provision of a concrete and effective recognition for the honest taxpayer, and the benefits that could depend on it.
Ethical and symbolic, but also practical benefits, a reward that also acts "as a deterrent towards the small or medium-sized evasions to which we are all tempted" to arrive, perhaps, one day, at giving life to a new and very distant spirit, of emulation of honesty. "It will take years, maybe, but it's worth a try."
