Meloni: 36.2 billion recovered from the fight against evasion in 2025

The fight against open and close VAT numbers continues. Revenue and Gdf have closed 12,000 of them, more than double the number intercepted in 2024. The rush to close fake VAT accounts has also contributed to the blocking of EUR 5.6 billion in fictitious credits, undue compensations, and VAT refunds not due. Also 400 million were recovered and collected, resulting in the regularisation of 11,500 workers in the fight against illegal labour contracting.

In 2025, tax refunds reached EUR 26.3 billion. More generally, the two agencies provided 21 million services. Agenzia Riscossione granted about 2 million instalments in 2025, 70 per cent of which through the online service 'Instalment Now'.

The number of pre-filled forms (730e Redditi Pf) sent directly by citizens also increased: 5.8 million in 2025 (+7.4% on 2024). Estimative services provided by the Osservatorio mercato immobiliare (Omi) and access to Land Registry databases are also on the rise: almost 86 million land registry searches carried out last year and over 73 million land registry inspections almost entirely online (98%).

'With cooperative compliance,' Carbone explained, 'we oversee a taxable amount of around EUR 49 billion. Last year alone, 79 companies were admitted, which brings the total to 221 since the institute's inception in 2015. In addition, there are a further 60 applications still under consideration'.

As director Vincenzo Carbone emphasised, 'the number of employees of the tax office reached 36,662, an increase of about 5 per cent compared to the end of 2024'. In comparison with the figure as at 31 December 2020 (when there were 31,312 employees), the increase is about 17 per cent.

"The work," Carbone added, "will continue this year as well: our programme includes the recruitment of 3,440 new resources, including - I am pleased to remind you - 602 management assistants that we will hire at the end of a procedure dedicated exclusively to people with disabilities.

Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, in his speech for the 25-year anniversary celebration of the Inland Revenue Agency, vindicates the government's action to reduce the tax burden: 'I would like to dedicate a reflection to the increase in tax revenues in recent years. This phenomenon is often associated with an increase in tax levels on workers. An association that is not correct'. "This growth in revenue," the minister added, "was, among other things, supported by the increase in employment and wages, as well as by the progress achieved in the emersion of undeclared work. It is therefore important to emphasise that, despite the increase in revenue, the government has not increased taxation levels. On the contrary, since it took office, it has progressively reduced the tax wedge for employees for the weaker economic brackets and then the Irpef rates, allocating in 2025 and 2026, with the last two budget laws, about 21 billion in favour, mainly, of the lower and middle income brackets'.

"Last December we were also able to acknowledge to the European Commission that in the years 2022-2023 we have achieved an average reduction in the propensity to evasion in all taxes (except Imu and excise duties) of 10.9% compared to 2019. This is an important result,' stressed Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti speaking at the celebration of 25 years of the Agenzia delle Entrate at the Chamber of Deputies. 'The structural reduction of evasion is an essential condition for supporting investments, accompanying reforms, and guaranteeing the sustainability of public finance in the medium to long term. The fight against evasion is not an isolated objective, but a structural element of the country's growth and stability strategy,' he explained.