Una amnesty about the money "hidden" in the safety deposit boxes of the banks, or on the wealth owned by Italians and never declared to the tax authorities to be regularized with a single rate. This, according to Corriere della Sera, is one of the Meloni government's hypotheses to raise cash in the next budget. According to the newspaper, it is proposed by Fdi deputy minister for the economy Maurizio Leo. However, he denies everything in a press note. It is not the first time that the so-called "Voluntary disclosure”, a spontaneous and voluntary declaration by taxpayers on hidden liquid assets detained in the country or abroad. The aim is to allow those who have evaded tax to deal with the Italian tax authorities in exchange for money.
Previous
Matteo Renzi had tried to implement it in the twilight of his centre-left government, in autumn 2016: it concerned violations committed up to 30 September 2014 and closed in November 2015. From the 130 thousand self-reports, around 60 billion emerged, and the recovery for the tax authorities (including the cash resulting from tax evasion) was 5 billion. The second edition, relating to violations committed between October 2016 and July 2017, yielded approximately one billion in the first phase (unofficial data), from 15 thousand instances. According to some estimates outlined by the magistrate Francesco Greek (at the time Milan's chief prosecutor), the "hidden treasure is between 200 and 300 billion euros, of which at least 150 are liquid".
A rule of this kind had also been proposed by Matteo Salvini at the time of the Conte I government (2019), with a rate of 15%.
Controversy
According to the president of the Order of Accountants Elbano De Nuccio the risk is to get to regularize illicit proceeds, in contrast with the anti-money laundering regulations. But putting these risks aside, it is controversial that this measure would not be accompanied by a tightening of the use of cash: on the contrary, the current executive has, if anything, loosened the rules, raising the ceiling on liquid payments from 1.000 to 5.000 . What would effectively be an amnesty on black money would thus risk creating a precedent, writes the Corriere, always encouraging new practices of this kind.
How does voluntary disclosure on liquid assets work?
It would involve allowing those who have illicitly hidden capital abroad or cash in bank safes to reveal these sums by reporting them to the tax authorities and paying a fee. substitute tax equal to 26%, in exchange for regularization. As for the "uncertainable" sums, they would be regularized alongside the others. In this way "a taxpayer who had, for example, 10 thousand euros of which he can justify the time of earning and another 10 thousand of which he cannot, would be able to regularize 20 thousand euros held illegally by paying just 2.600", explains Federico Fubini of Courier. But Leo's project also provides for the taxpayer to be subjected to a tax assessment for the sums that he is unable to explain. And filters should also arrive to exclude the proceeds of non-tax crimes, safeguarding anti-money laundering legislation. Making a false statement would result in a prison sentence of one to six years.
The amnesty on cash
In fact, explains the newspaper, the safety deposit box operation could become a kind of huge amnesty on illegal proceeds. Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti proposed a correction: imposing a ceiling on the volume of cash to be brought to light. But this could be an incentive to figurehead. The accountant De Nuccio explains that it would be an unprecedented operation because the cash amnesties have never been implemented. And there must be a reason. Not only that, “tax evasion can derive from the management of a real economy activity. The classic example is not declaring a part of the taxable amount on which the tax authorities make withdrawals. While the cash can be the result of drug dealing, the proceeds of organized crime activities or terrorism. We enter a context where it is difficult to find a correct way to bring out cash. An operation of this kind requires compliance with community constraints. One of them is VAT. Who says that the sums disclosed are not deriving from activities subject to the Value Added Tax regime?”.
But above all, concludes De Nuccio, “if the law were to introduce a withdrawal percentage to reveal the sums deposited in safes it would be seen as a slap in the face to those who pay taxes. The legislator will have to be careful."
The government's denial
Undersecretary Leo has denied the news: “Contrary to what was reported today by some press outlets, I categorically deny that a “voluntary disclosure” is being studied to reveal valuables and cash held in safety deposit boxes. It is a topic, moreover, which I do not deal with and have never dealt with." And again: “The only measure on which I have worked is the tax truce where it was expected that the taxpayer in debt to the tax authorities would pay everything due, with a reduced penalty. In any case, precisely by virtue of the role I hold as finance manager, I remain firmly opposed to forms of regularization of cash not declared to the tax authorities".
According to the Corriere, the government will avoid putting "its face" on it by letting a parliamentarian from the majority propose the measure when approving the budget law. The expected revenue should amount to around 10 billion euros. And although it has been denied for the moment, what emerges is that the executive is looking for resources to finance the next Budget Law and is evaluating all possibilities, including that of raising funds from one of the most secret drawers of tax evasion.
