Why a total tax amnesty is now appropriate

It is a situation, the one we analyze below, which presents the pressing need to rethink the entire tax system to avoid disaster through a possible tax amnesty (or amnesty tombstone). 

The stop to tax collections in our country, in fact, will last until1 September 2021, a date that many see as the prelude to anecessary tax reform which could also alter the collection system to dispose of the enormous number of credits still to be collected by the Tax Agency. Revenue and Collection (hereinafter, AdE).

At the moment, in fact, thecredit recovery costs by AdE appear to be extremely onerous and sometimes referable to irrecoverable debts and inconclusive actions.

It is this stalemate condition that has highlighted the need to review the tax-taxpayer relationship with clarity and simplicity.

It is not the first time that the public system has tried to rewrite and realign the State with the taxpayer, think of the so-called voluntary disclosure, a measure that came into force as an extraordinary measure and was then stabilized in full force. The fulcrum of voluntary, in fact, innovated the system in force at the time thanks to the use of a common European tax intelligence. The request addressed to EU citizens was to report any assets held outside the Union with the promise of the imposition of a lower administrative sanction.

This system of collaboration between tax authorities and taxpayers has proven effective in relation to the ability of states to quickly carry out verification and cross-check actions and bring to light previous positions previously impossible to discover, verify and sanction.

Following thevoluntary disclosure, the system has once again shown a strong need for innovation, bringing outnew prioritieswhich have pushed the legislator to pay particular attention tosimplificationin State-taxpayer relations, tocertaintyof the law, to the automation and effectivenessof controls by the tax authorities, toactive collaboration, to a rapid and effectiveassessment and collection system.

What we are requesting today as operators in the sector, as well as taxpayers, is a profound transformation of the taxpayer/treasury relationship which corresponds not only to a recovery of the previous amount but also and above all a facilitated collection.

The proposal is, that is, that of an extraordinary facilitative provision to be introduced starting from 2022 which allows:

• a "cleaning" of currently uncollectable positions (e.g. bills of up to 10,000 euros issued by 2015 and never hesitated);
• a facilitated definition of all other bills to be graduated in relation to the size of the taxpayer (also throughersed the reopening of scrapping by extending the time frame to all notifications until 31/12/2019);
• a total amnesty for the pre-pandemic years (2016-2019) of the positions of small taxpayers (business volume up to 10 million), similar to what has already been implemented with the 2003 financial law, with flat rates reduced;
• an extension of the voluntary repentance with bonus rates (minimum nominal single penalty after the 90th day plus interest).

The above proposal is only a first step towards a reform that allows the AdE to establish a relationship of collaboration with the taxpayer within which the latter, once the past has been remedied, would have every interest in maintaining ethical tax behaviour. This would allow for a transparent relationship with the State and a productive attitude towards tax compliance on the part of the taxpayer, intimidated by the quicker and more effective assessment and sanction capacity demonstrated by the public apparatus.