The (lost) battle of the municipalities against evasion

Trieste is the first Triveneto capital city in terms of commitment in the fight against tax evasion, ranking twelfth in the national ranking. In 2023 it managed to recover EUR 34,971 by reporting situations to the Revenue Agency to be verified concerning payments of IRPEF, IRES, VAT, registration or mortgage and cadastral taxes. Decree-Law No. 203 of September 2005 laid the foundations for the participation of municipalities in tax assessment. Fifty per cent of the revenue raised (until two years ago it was 100 per cent, but in 2005 it started with 33 per cent) ends up in municipal coffers and can be used, for example, for welfare and for the most fragile people such as the elderly and families in absolute poverty.

But 20 years later, it emerges that not all local authorities have taken advantage of the opportunity. According to the figures of the Ministry of the Interior, revised by Spi CGIL of Veneto and the Cgia di Mestre research office, in the macro-region there are still six provinces that from 2016 to 2023 (last available data, ed.) have not recovered anything: Belluno, Treviso, Rovigo, Trento, Udine and Bolzano. Pordenone managed to bring back almost EUR 6,000 in 2016 and from 2019 nothing more, Gorizia has always collected less than EUR 1,000.

Among the best placed are Verona, at the top in Veneto, thirteenth nationwide with 32,905 euro from the fight against evasion in 2023. Venice trails at 22,416 euro, followed by Vicenza at 14,430 euro. The latter two cities are in 17th and 18th place among the Italian capitals that have equipped themselves to cooperate with the Agency and have always brought in evaded amounts. Padua, 32nd, obtained EUR 1,800 in 2023.

The Veronese region also has the largest number of municipalities, 19, committed against evasion. Bussolengo managed to bring in 24,966 euro and Peschiera, 18 thousand euro. Fumane (11,144 euro), Negrar (7,582 euro) and Cerea (1,600) also did well. Also on the list are Noventa Padovana and Schio, in the Vicenza area, with just over 5 thousand euros each. Sliding down the list is Caldogno in the Berica region at over 2 thousand. In Veneto, only about thirty out of 563 municipalities (5.3% of the total) have taken advantage of the opportunity, increasing their cash resources by a total of 153 thousand euro.

According to Cgia, mayors are not necessarily insensitive to evasion or avoidance practised by their fellow citizens. Not all local authorities have enough resources in terms of personnel to formulate qualified, punctual, circumstantiated reports that contain identification data of the subject to whom the controls should be addressed. According to Spi CGIL of Veneto, the union that protects pensioners, this opportunity offered to local authorities continues to be exploited with the dropper. A structural and more intense action could lead to the recovery of important sums to be addressed to health, social welfare and to support the less affluent residents. Va.Za.