IRS, 450,000 controls on the agenda. Spotlight on recoveries from losses

At least 450 thousand inspections are on the agenda, with the already outlined prospect of increasing the level of turns on ordinary inspections by 20%, reaching 270 thousand in 2026. With the start of the new year, the Inland Revenue is immediately aiming to get on track with the new guidelines for combating evasion. Directives that can increasingly rely on the use of information and the possibility of cross-checks, as in the case of the alignment between Pos and telematic receipts (see "Il Sole 24 Ore" of 12 and 13 January), but that must necessarily probe the entire kaleidoscope in which the taxes to be declared and paid are materialised.

For this reason, the budget objectives of the Incomes (and metabolized in the last three-year agreement 2025-2027 with the MEF) mark 375 thousand checks to be carried out this year in various capacities, to which must be added the 75 thousand subjects subjected to analysis jointly with the Guardia di Finanza for the purposes of their respective control activities. This brings the total to 450 thousand. In reality, the number could even be exceeded, considering that, according to the guidelines provided in December by Revenue Director Vincenzo Carbone, ordinary assessments alone will have to grow in a trajectory destined to reach at least 350 thousand in 2028. An effort that is also supported by by the manoeuvre, which will allow for a further 60 per cent increase in staff awards.

Beyond the planned numbers, the substance will be represented by the ways in which the Agency will concretely increase the recovery rounds. In the programme outlined by Carbone, there is an indication of at least seven cornerstones to be considered in order to identify the taxpayers most at risk of evasion, ranging from the investigations carried out during 2025, which will be concluded with the issue and notification of the relevant taxable act in 2026, to the possibility of fully exploiting the potential of the new informatics applications (such as, for example, Isola) to work on overlapping planes and on multiple dimensions in the selection capacity.

On the selection front, in the specific case of corporations, there is also the indication to turn the spotlight on the recovery of losses that have been carried forward in the absence of the prerequisites. This applies to both individual taxpayers and consolidated taxpayers. From the perspective of the tax authorities, the recovery of losses can lead both in the immediate and in the medium term to an increase in revenue and contribute to a decrease in the tax gap. In support of this specific strand, the Revenue Agency can rely on the Spa database (Scomputo delle perdite in accertamento) in which all losses for the period and previous tax years are mapped 'used' to reduce the higher taxable amounts assessed.

One of the strategic directions is to increasingly strengthen synergies. Translated into other terms, union is strength. Space is therefore given to joint initiatives with the Guardia di Finanza and with the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli to strengthen risk analysis for increasingly targeted actions and to ensure coordination also at territorial level, so as to guarantee uniform handling of the cases examined.