Cash, Pos, VAT numbers: the news on the maneuver
The quickdraws win, but the contours of the maneuver begin to become more defined. In the Council of Ministers that ended late at night, M5S and Pd reached a series of agreements on some of the most controversial and dangerous issues for holding the majority. Each choice, however, is deferred over time.
Here is an outline of the timetable established for the various measures.
FROM XNUMXST JULY:
- Raising the cap on cash payments. The threshold, currently at 3 euros, will drop to 2 in the two-year period 2020-2021, and then drop further to XNUMX euros the following year. Recently, the Ministry of Economy published a handbook to clarify this measure.
- Fines for merchants who do not allow customers to pay with POS (debit or credit cards). In the coming months, the two souls of the Giallorossi government should find a further agreement on the lowering or cancellation of commissions for exhibitors, one of the three requests made by the 5 Star Movement.
READ MORE"Pos: obligation, penalties and commissions, here's what you need to know"
AFTER THE CONVERSION OF THE TAX DECREE INTO LAW:
- Prison for the great evaders. The new legislation, also strongly desired by the pentastellati, provides for detention between 4 and 8 years for those who evade at least 100 thousand euros.
FROM 2021ST JANUARY XNUMX:
- The superbonus of the Befana. It will reward expenses made starting from 2020 July 2021 for those who make traceable purchases in sectors considered to be at high risk of evasion (for example plumbers, hairdressers, beauticians, workshops, electricians and restaurants, but the list could also include doctors and dentists). The bonus will be collected through the "cashback" mechanism at the beginning of 300: hence the bizarre reference to the Epiphany. The resources allocated remain equal to three billion, which would translate into a bonus of 500 to XNUMX euros, depending on the audience that will be involved.
WE CONTINUE TO TREAT:
- VAT number and flat rate scheme. There is still no agreement on this chapter, which is particularly thorny from an electoral point of view, and discussions in the majority will continue in the coming days (or weeks). However, it seems that some progress has been made: in particular, we would go towards an easing of the tightening of the flat tax for VAT numbers, maintaining the full flat-rate regime for incomes up to 65 thousand euros. The other limits for accessing the regime are still in doubt, starting with the cap on investment expenditure.
THE GOVERNMENT'S COMMENT
"The agreement on the tightening of the rules for large tax evaders complies with point 16 of the government program and is part of the government's central strategy to fight tax evasion - says Dario Franceschini, head of the Democratic Party's delegation in the government - The fact then that in tax decree it is envisaged that the rules will not enter into force immediately but only at the time of conversion, guarantees the Parliament on the possibility of investigating all the effects and consequences".
Di Maio adds: “Prison for large tax evaders is part of the tax decree, as the M5S had forcefully requested. And also the confiscation for disproportion. Both rules will enter into force after the conversion into law by the Parliament. From now on whoever evades hundreds and hundreds of thousands of euros will finally be punished with prison. We hit the big fish."
BRUSSELS ASKS FOR CLARIFICATIONS
Meanwhile, the European Commission has asked Italy for clarifications on the maneuver for 2020 and the executive will reply by Wednesday. Brussels' doubts concern the trajectory of public debt, given that the structural deficit, calculated net of the economic cycle and one-off measures, is expected to worsen by 0,1% in 2020, against a correction of 0,6% requested from the EU.
“Italy's plan does not comply with the benchmarks for debt reduction in 2020”, reads the letter signed by Pierre Moscovici, outgoing commissioner for economic affairs, and Valdis Dombrovskis, newly reconfirmed vice president.
So far, the maneuver contains measures amounting to around 31 billion, more than half of which is financed through an increase in the deficit from 1,3% tendential to 2,2% planned.
But according to the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, “the spread narrowed in the latter part of 2019 and will allow us to save up to 18 billion euros, leading to a reduction in the debt-GDP ratio. We will work to ensure that the reduction in the spread is even more significant and the markets can believe in us even more”.
