A super database for IRS answers

A super database for answers from the tax authorities. For the simplified consultations envisaged by the implementation of the taxation proxy, the tax administration and its technological partner Sogei are working on a maxidatabase capable of providing calibrated and reliable answers on the basis of a wealth of information ranging from the Agency's practice documents (circulars, resolutions, answers to previous appeals) but, and this is an important innovation, also tax rulings, so as to have an updated picture of the case law on merit and legitimacy (naturally guaranteeing the anonymity of all parties involved). A maxi search engine that will have to untangle almost 230,000 articles representing the entire body of tax law. Work is also in progress to carry out all the necessary tests to guarantee both the infrastructure and the resilience. However, as explained by Deputy Minister for the Economy Maurizio Leo, speaking at the conference 'The tax authorities' information systems for combating tax evasion' organised yesterday at the Chamber of Deputies by the parliamentary supervisory committee on the Tax Registry, chaired by Maurizio Casasco (Forza Italia), the super database for simplified consultation would make it possible to reduce the pressure of requests for appeal (last year the Agency responded to 10,000 requests between central and regional directorates), limiting it to the most complex cases. Moreover, added Leo in response to a question from the deputy editor of Sole 24 Ore Jean Marie del Bo, 'we want to get to the point where we can avert the assessment, we have to work ex ante'. The potential is there, given that - as Sogei CEO Cristiano Cannarsa recalled - there are already some 200 databases that 'are interoperable by definition'. Just to understand what the magnitudes are in the field, there are 1,000 electronic prescriptions per second and 2.5 billion electronic invoices every year.

"If there is evasion, we must work for a simplification of the European regulatory framework to support business growth and have easier rules for paying taxes, also using new technologies, I am thinking of artificial intelligence," said Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, in a video link from Riyadh. As indicated by Chamber of Deputies Speaker Lorenzo Fontana in the message he sent, it is 'essential to balance the needs of tax assessment with the guarantees of security and confidentiality granted to taxpayers'. Casasco too emphasised that 'the needs of tax assessment can never translate into a compression of individual rights and freedoms'. And, as the bicameral vice-chairman Giulio Centemero (Lega) admitted, 'tax registry data are very important' and 'must be valued in the right way, without leaving them to the arbitrariness of algorithms or economic interests'.

Among the various aspects highlighted in his report by the commanding general of the Guardia di Finanza, Andrea De Gennaro, 'the increasing availability of data also affects the control mode, reducing the cases in which it is necessary to acquire elements directly from individual taxpayers'. The importance of data leads back to the importance of data security. 'Cybersecurity as security of infrastructures, networks, systems and services,' explained the Director General of the National Cybersecurity Agency Bruno Frattasi, 'is nothing other than the security of the data. So the cyber security of infrastructures and the security of data end up coinciding'.

The possibility of cross-checking data can be of great help in preventive as well as repressive terms. "On the subject of preventive checks on building bonuses, in the period 2021-2025, the Revenue Agency screened around 9 million communications, inhibiting the undue use of non-existent credits for almost 8 billion euro," explained Revenue Director Vincenzo Carbone. He also highlighted two aspects. On the one hand, the reiterated message that the 'Revenue Agency, in its risk analysis and control activities, does not use the latest generation of artificial intelligence, the generative one'. On the other hand, no socialometer ("I firmly reject the idea of acquiring in an uncritical manner the information available on the web" said Carbone) but on the possibility of using online data "it is necessary to ask oneself whether, after a pondered analysis aimed at verifying their accuracy, symptomatic information of an economic activity carried out in a concealed manner could not be used to further enrich the information heritage of the Financial Administration; above all, in consideration of the fact that in any case, it would be examined again, this time together with the taxpayer, during the contradictory phase". On this subject, the Garante della Privacy, Pasquale Stanzione, had recalled his intervention on the occasion of the implementation of the tax delegation on the possibility of using freely available online data for the purpose of risk analysis: 'The Garante requested and obtained to expunge the reference to this information as lacking the necessary accuracy requirements and collected for purposes other than those for which it is made available'. He explained that such a provision would have legitimised 'a web scraping', i.e. a sort of socialometer, 'with the risk, however, of basing tax risk analyses preparatory to actual assessments on data that are not entirely reliable'.

The director of the Customs and Monopolies Agency (Adm), Roberto Alesse, also emphasised that the use of new technologies plays a central role in tax assessment and the fight against tax evasion. A clear example can be found in the customs area. Italy, in this context, is perfectly in line with the multi-year strategic plan for electronic customs.