Bankitalia: tax evasion falls, from 2017 to 2021 drop of 25 billion

"In recent years there has been an overall reduction in tax evasion, both in absolute value and in percentage terms. It was in fact 97 billion in 2017 and has contracted in the order of 25 billion. Also in relative terms, the propensity to evade tax has fallen by almost 6 percentage points, from 21% in 2017'. This was said by Giacomo Ricotti, head of Bankitalia's tax service, at a hearing on the cognitive survey on measures to combat tax evasion, specifying that in the most recent estimates, relative to 2021, the tax evasion component alone stands at around 72 billion, while considering also tax evasion, the figure rises to over 82 billion.

In the management of taxation and the fight against evasion, Ricotti explained, "the analyses conducted show a limited gap between the most relevant countries, outlining an overall homogeneous panorama in which Italy stands out for some consolidated excellence, including the pioneering role in the large-scale adoption of electronic invoicing, and analytical capabilities aligned to those of the most advanced countries, thanks also to the use of machine learning tools. The head of the Bank of Italy also pointed out that 'our country is also in an advanced position in the area of taxpayer services, including pre-filled tax returns, fed with data collected from a wide range of sources and also used in Italy in the VAT field'. In his cross-country comparative analysis, Ricotti also noted that 'while Spain stands out for the breadth of information collected, Italy is one of the few administrations that stands out for its use of data from electronic invoicing systems. Our country is also the only one, among the main ones, that makes use of the telematic transmission of receipts, a tool that is also little used in the remaining countries in the overall sample'..