Concordat, incomes arrive. 50% discount the first year

The machine of the two-year arrangement agreement for VAT holders begins its road tests. Expectations are high. On the government side, they are expecting from the new instrument an increase in revenue produced by those who do not pay everything today, which is indispensable to make the most substantial part of the tax reform go ahead, the part that promises to continue along the road of generalised tax reductions for those who already pay them on time. The 4.5 million VAT numbers potentially affected, on the other hand, are waiting for the time to translate into figures the cost-benefit calculation proposed by the agreement with the State: a two-year exclusion from inspections in exchange for a declaration showing a taxable income in line with the expectations of the IRS.

The first figures will begin to circulate shortly after the financial administration releases the calculation software that will build the income required for each taxpayer to sign the two-year arrangement with creditors in the evening of today. Yesterday, Deputy Finance Minister Maurizio Leo signed the decree with the Methodological Note, called to set procedures and parameters for the calculation. And everything suggests that for many, the road to 'congruous' income according to the Inland Revenue will not be a short one: especially for those who, as happened in the last declarations to 54% of self-employed taxpayers subject to Isa, did not even manage to achieve a tax report card (grade at least equal to '8') such as to be considered 'reliable' by the Inland Revenue. Because the objective of the concordat is more ambitious; it aims to bring taxpayers who adhere towards a '10' grade.

In doing so, however, he must be careful not to frighten the candidates for the two-year agreement too much, which otherwise risks turning into a hole in the water by taking the same unfortunate path that condemned his predecessor of twenty years ago to a quick dismissal. Because such a prospect would mean saying goodbye to the additional revenue from 'compliance', putting a strong mortgage on the whole strategy of the reform: which focuses on the 'prevention' of evasion as a more effective weapon than ex post contrast, and calls precisely on the agreement to provide financial fuel for the next steps.

It is precisely for this reason that the improvement in taxable income asked of taxpayers will be progressive,' as Leo reiterated on several occasions. And in practice, as inferred from the methodological note, it will ask for an adjustment in two stages, offering a 50 per cent discount in the year of debut. In practice: if the increase in income required to obtain the '10' in the tax report card will be, for example, 10 thousand euro, an increase of 5 thousand will suffice to settle with the tax authorities on this year's income.

Having signed the methodological note on the mechanism, which in recent days had also received the go-ahead from the Privacy Guarantor, today the Inland Revenue will release the software that will begin to 'give the numbers' on which taxpayers and associations can begin to take the measure of the new tool. Once the software has been downloaded, and the parts already pre-filled by the IRS with personal data and the historical series of revenues and costs have been checked, the taxpayer will have to indicate the crucial data for determining the new income: the number of employees, the percentage of use of materials owned or purchased from suppliers, and the other pillars of the complex cost structure.