(Finance) – “There is a worrying process of disintermediation underway which is also being pushed forward by this government which has strengthened it with the enabling law. At this point I wonder how useful it is that the controller, the State, you also become a consultant to the controlled party. Especially if the latter does not have the skills to communicate with the Revenue Agency, a reality from which we professionals have been excluded, under the pressure of telematics”. It is the alarm raised by Marco Cuchel, president of the National Association of Accountants, during the conference “The challenge of competitiveness. Possible synergies between Professionals and Artificial Intelligence” promoted by the ANC in La Spezia.
“The role of the professional within society must be valorised. A role that is always recognized in words – he added Cuchel – and we have deserved it with our dedication over the years, helping Italians in their relationship with the tax authorities. But then nice words are not followed by facts. The reality is that we are not talking about exclusives, which are taken away from us every day. Anyone can do our activities, emptying our core business. We need to truly put the professional back at the center of the tax system and this certainly cannot be done with the composition with creditors, but rather by having the possibility of accessing the data of the pre-compiled forms which are made available to professionals to achieve true compliance”.
The confrontation with politicians was opened by Ettore Rosato, deputy of the Third Pole in the Foreign and Community Commission. “The tax delegation – said Rosato – is a point of balance that does not contain all the solutions but represents an important step forward for the modernization of our tax system which will all have to be implemented quickly. Especially with regards to simplifications. I am convinced that artificial intelligence will arrive; either we will be able to use it in the best way or we will have an overlap of professionalism with technological innovation which will be the prerogative of large multinational companies and which will also take the space of local professionals to replace the personal relationship which also matters a lot in your profession. The application of fiscal delegation is an extraordinary opportunity to clearly connect the world of business with the world of professionals and the world of institutions. A path that also requires the capacity of political forces transversally to work together”.
He also intervened on the fiscal delegation Alberto Gusmeroli (Lega), president of the Productive Activities commission of the Chamber. “The key principles of the tax delegation are simplification, gradual reduction of taxes but above all rebalancing in the relationship between citizens and the tax authorities, which is absolutely unbalanced in favor of the latter. I am optimistic – he said Gusmeroli – for the application of the implementing decrees and we are working to apply as early as November 2023 a rule to abolish the advance payment by moving it to the first half of 2024. We are also working on an intervention to merge the rates to 23 percent, a further step to reach to the Flat tax at the end of the legislature. Finally there is the desire to simplify and impact the tax system which is among the most complicated in the world. The tax complication is a hidden tax that we all pay which has an enormous cost for the country system and does not even allow us to be interesting for foreign investments. We have launched a fact-finding investigation in the Commission on artificial intelligence and we will audit more than 100 players.”
He focused on the centrality of professionals Andrea de Bertoldi (FdI), member of the Finance commission at Montecitorio. “We are trying to give answers to Italians by overcoming the many problems also linked to professions and their centrality in the apparatus. Starting from the theme of disintermediation which – said de Bertoldi – is an element that can damage the citizen to the extent they confront the competence of the Revenue Agency with the incompetence, or good faith, of the taxpayer without the assistance of a tax professional. Accountants must return to being central in the relationship with the PA, only in this way will we be able to rebalance the relationship between tax authorities and taxpayers”.
He talked about simplifications Emiliano Fenu, group leader of the M5s in the Finance Committee of the Chamber. “We have presented various proposals in the tax delegation with the aim of simplifying the lives of small taxpayers. It seems to me – said Fenu – that we are going in the opposite direction. I am referring, for example, to the letters that will be sent massively inviting the taxpayers to join the composition with creditors with the veiled threat that, in case of failure to join, the taxpayer exposes himself to an assessment. Is this a friendly taxman? Where are the simplifications in the mass sending of membership proposals to which the accountants will have to respond “The sustainability of taxation must concern the State, avoiding wars between the poor”.
“The issue of disintermediation must be addressed. The user who shows up at a counter with a lot of information to verify and which calls into question the competence of individual professionals, – he said Silvio Lai, deputy of the Democratic Party in the Budget Commission at Montecitorio – is difficult to counteract at the point we are reaching. It’s hard to go back. An absence of recognition of authority which unfortunately affects many professions, from doctors to teachers. For this reason I hope that accountants can be the leaders of an overall battle to protect not only the categories but, above all, the rights of citizens”.
The voice of professionals on the topic of Artificial Intelligence was expressed by Luigi Pagliuca, president of the Accountants and Accounting Experts Welfare Fund. “It is necessary – said Pagliuca – to strengthen the IT literacy of the category and activate concrete synergies to use personal skills and work together, constituting a ‘network’ of knowledge to respond effectively to market demands. With the Order of Milan we are pioneers in the application of AI which must always include professional supervision to carry out a detailed check of the mechanisms.”
“We need to give professionals tools and data to carry out their activities more efficiently. We need to open the public administration databases so that – he said Roberto Bellini general director of Assosoftware – are easily accessible and can constitute a fundamental basis for carrying out consultancy activities. Direct access to the databases of the Revenue Agency or INPS is a conditioning element for speeding up processes and making correct assessments for customers. Instead of providing tools like pre-populations to taxpayers, the state would do well to help accountants access that information. Only then could we talk about the application of Artificial Intelligence which is nothing more than the sum of data and software.”