(Finance) – “The category of chartered accountants is experiencing a delicate moment between the lack of real tax simplification and the increase in responsibilities. It’s a profession that has become unattractive, with a percentage growth in members of 0.01% in 2022 compared to the previous year. Which from the outside has a negative meaning and is struggling with the absence of tariffs and an adequate economic return, in addition to the unsustainability of the fiscal calendar”. She stated it Francesco Cataldi, president of the National Union of Young Accountants and Accounting Experts, during the XVII Forum of Young Accountants, entitled “The accountant in balance between role and responsibility”, at the Antonianum Auditorium in Rome.
“We have been asking for years for the elimination of useless and redundant obligations – explains Cataldi –. If this still does not happen, through no fault of ours, it will be necessary that the new activities, which we remember are too often of low added value for professionals, no longer burden accountants: it is no longer possible to continue to shoulder the cost of these obligations ”. At the first Forum as president of the Union, Cataldi together with the new Council also presented the Uni.Co (Universities and Accountants) project, which aims to bring the professionals in universities to raise awareness among students and explain to them the opportunities offered by the world of the profession.
At the meeting the Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance spoke, Maurizio Leo: “Chartered accountants will have to play an important role in the new relationship between tax authorities and taxpayers. A relationship that will go in two directions: biennial preventive agreement for entities with revenues of less than 5 million and 100 thousand euros and cooperative compliance for more structured companies. Then there is the central group of companies that will be able to present the tax control framework, representing the tax risks to have important reward effects. Everything is oriented towards a new approach between tax authorities and taxpayers with new mechanisms that help combat tax evasion also thanks to technology. In this context the accountants will be “drive belt” between administration finance and citizens”.
Speaking of new technologies and artificial intelligence, the Deputy Minister of Justice Francesco Paolo Sisto stated that it is necessary to “claim the need for accountants (and in general for intermediate bodies) in society. Professionals who can assert their thoughts and creativity is a great challenge that we cannot afford to lose.”
The Honorable Andrea De Bertoldi he remarked: “Lots of responsibilities but also an increasingly important role for accountants. The government has already responded with the fair compensation law. But responsibility also means prospects of exclusive functions also for subsidiarity towards the public administration. An effective and efficient category at 360 degrees.”
Elbano De Nuccio, president of the National Council of Chartered Accountants, underlined how evident is “the reconquest of the category in terms of image and above all of interactions with the political world. We are in tune with the activity of a government that listens to our requests and involves us. There is full achievement of the objective of professionals serving the country.”
For Francesco Savio, president of the UNGDCEC Study Center Foundation, “a fair balance is needed between the role and responsibilities of the accountant. We are on the eve of important news for the categoriesa, we expect politics to give certain answers in terms of quantifying responsibilities”.