Government bills are worth at least 7 billion a year

At least seven billion euro in payments from the public administration to freelancers. There are many transactions that risk falling under the new cut-off imposed by the Budget Law, albeit with a perimeter that is being redefined. In fact, the figures alone for doctors and lawyers in legal aid lead to this gigantic figure. To this must be added the numbers of other categories, which are currently not available: engineers, architects, surveyors, but also accountants will all be affected by the new obligations on fiscal regularity. The potential perimeter of the new compliance is, in short, much higher than 7 billion.

Starting, however, from the numbers available, it is possible to analyse first of all the data retrieved by Enpam, the Ente nazionale di previdenza ed assistenza dei medici e degli odontoiatri (National Welfare and Assistance Board for Doctors and Dentists). The body has sounded out the mass of payments to medical professional categories that operate in agreement with the public administration. These are, specifically, freely chosen paediatricians, general practitioners (which also includes primary care, territorial health emergency and prison doctors) and outpatient doctors (which includes outpatients and dentists). In 2024 they generated revenues of approximately 6.8 billion euro. These are all payments that fall under the new squeeze, linked to fiscal regularity. And, moreover, these are also numbers that should be adjusted upwards slightly, since they do not include, for example, subjects such as token earners and all the consultancies that doctors do for the public administration. Although it should be emphasised that these last two items still weigh very little in comparison with the 6.8 billion photographed by Enpam.

But lawyers working in legal aid also fall into the squeeze. According to data included in the Ministry of Justice's report to Parliament on legal aid, in fact, the cost of this type of assistance in the criminal trial "gross of any expenses recovered" in 2024 was 266.5 million euros. This is the peak year for this item. These payments, regardless of the amount, will also be conditional on fiscal regularity.

But the scope of the transactions that will be impacted by the new measure is much broader. According to estimates by the Study Centre of the National Council of Engineers, in fact, the total turnover of engineering and architecture services is 18.4 billion euros in 2024. An amount that includes not only engineers and architects, but also surveyors, geologists and industrial experts. These are not all activities related to the public administration; indeed, on the basis of the available data it is impossible to indicate the exact share attributable to the public administration and the upcoming squeeze. Certainly, however, these categories also make an important contribution to the payments potentially affected by the new tax regularity checks. And, to complete the list, professionals such as accountants working for instance as auditors of local authorities or lawyers' consultancies outside the scope of legal aid must also be included in the audit enclosure.