Third consecutive record year for the Italian Revenue Agency

valeria ibello's picture
Published by:

The Italian Revenue Agency has the highest amount ever collected by the tax administration  (with 19 billion reported in the State coffers in 2016) for the third consecutive year thanks to targeted tax assessment activities and to a new strategy aimed at increasing the implementation of spontaneous tax obligations. In fact, about 500 million euro come from the promotion of preventive dialogue with citizens, aimed at giving taxpayers the opportunity to correct the mistakes in time, and thus to pay reduced penalties, avoiding future tax assessments. Good news also in terms of tax refunds: in 2016 the offices of the Revenue Agency delivered  2 million and 740 thousand tax refunds to business and families, for a total amount of 14 billion euro. Meanwhile, it is growing the use of online services, with over 6 million registered users, and the number of prefilled annual tax returns handled independently by the citizens, with 2.1 million returns sent via web by taxpayers.
These are just some of the results, achieved by the Italian Revenue Agency, presented on 9th February 2017 by Director Rossella Orlandi, during a press conference at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, with the presence of Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, the Deputy Minister Luigi Casero, and representatives of tax authorities.

 
Recovered 19 billion euro from the fight against tax evasion -  After the success of the previous two years (14.2 billion euro in 2014 and 14.9 billion euro in 2015), 2016 confirms the positive trend in terms of amounts collected, thanks to a targeted fight against tax evasion with more than 19 billion euro recovered (+ 28%). Of these, 4.1 billion are attributable to the “voluntary disclosure” procedure. A result that goes beyond expectations, thanks to painstaking assessment activities carried out by the tax officials on more than 129 thousand applications. The Revenue Agency has focused its assessment activities on large taxpayers, with a percentage of controls of 40.3%, followed by medium-sized enterprises, with 15.3% and small businesses and self-employed with 1.4%. About individuals, tax investigations were carried out in relation to more than 280 thousand taxpayers.
 
A 2016 of innovation and efficiency for taxpayers – The prefilled annual tax return is more and more appreciated by taxpayers that, in 2016, sent 2.1 million returns directly online, an increase of 50% compared to 2015. A success reached also thanks to the new data made available by the Revenue Agency, such as health expenditures and other deductible expenses. The Tax Administration has also been engaged in increasing the dialogue with taxpayers, providing over 13 million services: over 10 million directly at the local offices and more than two million by phone.
994 thousand queries were managed by Civis, the online service to help taxpayers with the irregularity communications. Using online channels was also crucial to streamline bureaucratic procedures: last year, for example, over 1 million of leases registrations, the 61% of the total, were carried out electronically (they were 11% in 2010).
Furthermore, the Revenue Agency was also involved in other processes of innovation in Public Administration, such as electronic invoicing. Since the service started, in June 2014, the invoices exchanged electronically with Public Administrations have reached 56 million.
Finally, good news also regarding the brand new “Advance tax ruling on new investments”, that enables resident and non-resident investors, going to realize long-lasting and relevant investments within the Italian territory, to obtain the preventive opinion from the Italian Revenue Agency about the tax treatment applicable to business plans and related extraordinary operations. In 2016, 16 investors presented the investment plan to the Revenue Agency and express interest for the new institute. 6 are the instances already submitted (3 of which related to foreign investors), for a total value of 3.87 billion euro and employment implications for about 75,000 job positions.