Tax Pills

On the services side, in 2022, 672 billion euro of payments have passed through F24, almost exclusively online, while in the same period the Revenue Agency has managed 2.2 billion b2b and b2c electronic invoices. Moreover, that is not all, the 'Credit Transfer Platform' has worked 12 million notices of assignment of credits relating to building bonuses last year, while over 1.4 million telematics recorders has been activated in 2022. These are some of the most significant volumes managed by the Agency through technological channels.

Keep rising the appeal of web and internet fiscal tools – Data on the use of online services by taxpayers are also on the rise. In 2022, more than 9 out of 10 rental contracts were registered on PCs. A similar ratio for successions: 92.2% were worked through digital applications. The Online is also popular in the 'Territory' area where consultations of cadastral databases, for example, take place at the front office in less than 2% of cases. The year 2022 saw also the evolution of the web ticket service (which allows users to 'detach', online or on the Agency's app, a ticket to be used in the office) and of the pre-call and video call assistance services (for rents, health cards, tax declarations and fiscal refunds). Another new feature introduced in 2022 is the Revenue Agency's video call assistance service. Thanks to this service, which allows, remotely, registering a rental contract, obtaining assistance on declarations and refunds or requesting a duplicate health card, the Agency can provide the necessary assistance on video, without the taxpayer having to go to the office.

No touch for one in four 730 tax returns and make way for the VAT prefilled – In 2022, 23.2 million prepopulated 730s were submitted, 4.1 million of which were sent in autonomously by citizens. Almost 1 in 4 'do-it-yourself' 730s (23.6 per cent) were sent in without changes, as prepared by the Revenue Agency. Last year, moreover, all the preliminary activities were carried out for the preparation of the annual pre-compiled VAT return referring to transactions carried out as of 1 January 2022, which since 10 February has been made available to approximately 2.4 million taxpayers included in the first experimental stage.

Fiscal advices and measures for attracting investment – The 2022 saw the Revenue Agency reply to almost 16,000 rulings at regional level and over 2,000 at central level. In addition, 36 circulars letters and 81 resolutions were drafted. The Revenue Agency also provided specialised assistance and advice to businesses: thanks to the advance tax ruling tool for new investment, 19 requests were answered in 2022, which are expected to bring about 2,500 new jobs and multi-year investments worth around EUR 10.4 billion. In addition, 15 more companies were admitted to the cooperative compliance regime last year, bringing the total to 92. These numbers certify how tax rules and the Revenue Agency can also play a pivotal role in making the Country appealing for foreign investors.

Stefano Latini
 

More than 20.2 billion euro was brought back into State coffers last year thanks to the overall tax evasion activities conducted by the Revenue Agency together with Revenue Collection Agency. Of these, 19 billion came from ordinary controls, a record result, exceeding the 16.8 billion recovered in 2019 by 2.2 billion (+13%). In addition to the 'higher revenue' from tax enforcement activities, the Revenue Agency ensured 'lower losses' from State budget thanks to risk analyses and anti-fraud activities, for a total of EUR 9.5 billion between tax credits, bonuses and fiscal refunds blocked in various fields of investigation. Spontaneous revenue is also growing. In fact, direct and indirect taxes paid autonomously by taxpayers amount to almost EUR 510 billion (+11% on 2021), while refunds paid out in 2022 to households and businesses are close to EUR 20 billion. These are some of the most significant figures presented today at the press conference by the Head of the Revenue Agency and Revenue Collection Agency, Ernesto Maria Ruffini, on the results achieved in 2022 and the future prospects of both Agencies. The Minister of Economy and Finance, Giancarlo Giorgetti, and the Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance, Maurizio Leo, also attended the event.

Grow both revenue recovered thanks to tax enforcement controls and compliance receipts – As already said, of the 20.2 billion returned to State's coffers last year, 19 billion are the result of ordinary recovery from control activities. Particularly, 10.9 billion from direct payments, 3.2 billion from compliance letters, and 4.9 billion from payment notices by Revenue Collection Agency. On the other side, collections from extraordinary measures, like “fiscal peace” and “tax debts write off”, amounted to 1.2 billion.
The rise of  advance fiscal notice or also known as tax alerts - Again with reference to the recovery achieved by the Revenue Agency, collections through tax compliance strategy in 2022 registered a 52% increase compared to 2019, when the sums aroused from to tax 'alerts' stopped at 2.1 billion. In details, from January to December 2022, more than 2.5 million advance fiscal notices were sent to alert taxpayers to possible anomalies, significantly exceeding the target set by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, NRRP, either with regard to the number of preventive communications sent (102% of the target) or with regard to collection (120% of the target). As far as anti-fraud activity is concerned, in 2022 a total of EUR 9.5 billion in undue amounts were intercepted, of which more than EUR 6.3 billion related to false credits from blocked building bonuses and more than EUR 2.1 billion related to fictitious credits discarded thanks to the prior checking of transfer notices.

A look at what has been done for families and businesses – Not only recovery activities, but also an extraordinary effort to provide families and businesses with the tax refunds they are entitled to, and making so more quickly. Last year, 3.4 million fiscal repayments were made for almost EUR 20 billion of which EUR 17 billion to businesses. Thanks to recent simplifications put in place by the Agency, the time needed to credit the sums due to taxpayers has been reduced by about 30 days. If we add the tax refunds for the three-year period 2020-2022 (58.8Bn) to the sums 'credited' as non-refundable grants in the same period, amounting to 25.3Bn, the liquidity injected by the Revenue to support the economy during the Covid period exceeds 84Bn.

Stefano Latini