Bankitalia open to speculation patrimonial. Also thanks to this tool, in fact, one could compensate the excessive "incidence of the tax burden on capital and above all on labour" which characterizes Italy compared to other European countries. This was stated by the head of the tax assistance and consultancy service in via Nazionale, Giacomo Ricotti, in the course of a parliamentary hearing on the Irpef reform that the government would like to start addressing this year.
In particular, Ricotti underlines that, given the budget constraints, “further reductions in the levy on work could be financed through a higher tax burden on consumption and wealth, considered less harmful to growth”. Translation: to lower the personal income tax without damaging the state accounts, it would be necessary to raise the VAT and introduce a new property tax in addition to the IMU on second homes.
Ricotti explains that a capital levy has positive redistributive effects, view "the high concentration of wealth, which is well above that of incomes”. This topic is "even stronger in countries where tax evasion is widespread”, because in these cases the property “can make it possible to mitigate the negative effects deriving from the non-taxation of the income from which the accumulated wealth originates”. Furthermore, the patrimonial it encourages "more productive uses" of resources, since "a levy on a notional yield" reduces its weight "as the effective yield increases".
Not to mention that “patrimonial taxation it may allow to correct other aspects of the tax system – continues Ricotti – such as for example the non-taxation of capital gains or the tax deferral effect due to their taxation upon realization or, finally, a zero or very limited levy on inheritances”.
Ricotti also recalls the main arguments against property taxation: “The possible ones negative effects on the savings rate of individuals, the risk of transfers abroad of the moving components of wealth e the increase in the cost of capital for firms".
However, the head of Bankitalia's tax service notes that "the risks of tax avoidance and evasion through the transfer of capital abroad, also underlined by the literature, should be mitigated today, at least in part, thanks to the progress made in recent years with the exchange of information between tax administrations and with an increased use of data by the same administrations”.
This does not mean, however, that "very high property taxation could induce the wealthiest individuals to transfer their residence abroad", concludes Ricotti.
