(Finance) – Tensions in the majority on “Income meter” question after publication in the Official Journal of the decree signed by the deputy minister of Economy and Finance Maurizio Leo (Fdi) which reactivates the tool, suspended in 2018, updating it in the spending indicators. And Leo runs for cover. The Deputy Minister of Economy – we learn from Palazzo Chigi sources – has agreed with the Presidency of the Council to report to the next Council of Ministers on the content of the ministerial decree of 7 May 2024 which introduces limits to the discretionary power of the Financial Administration to implement the synthetic assessment. The same sources underline that the issuing of the decree, established by the Conte 1 Government but never implemented, had been awaited for more than six years to regulate the actual passing of the so-called “Income Meter” introduced by the Renzi Government in 2015.
The income meter allows you to compare the expenses incurred by the taxpayer and their consistency with the declared income and will concern, among other things, the consumption of food, clothing and footwear, housing expenses, healthcare expenses, cars and telephones, for education. An act, that of the deputy minister, which could be linked to the opening, on 15 June, of the terms for the preventive agreement. In view of the budget law, the government has, in fact, an enormous need for fresh resources and the prospect of the income meter could constitute an “incentive” to join. But from a political point of view, the publication three weeks before the European elections appears to many to be a “slip”.
“The centre-right has always been against the ‘income meter’ mechanism introduced in 2015 by the Renzi Government. The ministerial decree published in recent days in the Gazzetta finally places limits on the discretionary power of the financial administration to implement the summary assessment, i.e. the possibility of the Tax Authority to accuse the taxpayer of inconsistencies between purchases, standard of living and declared income. Power provided by the tax system since 1973. the Deputy Minister of Economy clarifies in a note, as the controversy mounts –. In detail – he explains – with our decree, we intervened to correct a distortion that was created in 2018, when the Conte 1 Government abolished the Ministerial Decree of 16 September 2015, the so-called ‘income meter’, of the Renzi Government and had simultaneously established that a new decree should be issued with precise limits to guarantee the taxpayer, so as to limit the inductive content of the assessment to a minimum, and always favoring precise data to guarantee the taxpayer. Unfortunately, that decree was never issued and, instead of favoring the taxpayer, a void was created in the limits to the action of the financial administration in the application of the summary assessment, effectively introducing a permanent income meter mechanism without any limitation . After six years, the centre-right government has finally intervened and issued a decree, previously shared with consumer associations, Istat and the privacy guarantor, which sets precise limits to guarantee the taxpayer and introduces, among other things , also a mandatory double cross-examination. Therefore, there is no return to the old income meter but only more guarantees for taxpayers. Furthermore, the centre-right confirms its commitment to fighting major tax evaders, in a context of total respect for taxpayers’ rights.”
“The League has always been against the income meter. The inquisition has passed some time ago and will certainly not return with the League in government”, they say Northern League sources evoking a “Big Brother mode”. Criticism also from Forza Italia: “Fi has always been at the forefront in the fight against tax evasion, but firmly opposed to the so-called income meter. It is no coincidence that it has never voted in favor of the measure in the past. Consistent with the opposition made at the time of its institution, when it was an opposition party, today it did not agree with the decision to make it executive”, clarifies the group leader in the Chamber Paolo Barelli.
In detail the provision indicates “the information that can be used to determine the indicative elements of contributory capacity present in the archives held by the financial administration”. We will proceed with the summary determination of the income on the basis of both the expenses presumptively attributable to the taxpayer”. The provisions “are applicable to the summary determination of income and major income relating to the tax years starting from 2016”.
THE taxpayers’ incomes they will be examined according to different typologies: the decree indicates for example 11 typologies for family units and 5 different areas of the country. The savings amounts that have accumulated over the years and the expenses actually incurred will be taken into consideration as shown in the tax register. “The expenses, broken down by groups and categories of consumption of the family unit to which the taxpayer belongs, – we read in the text – are deduced from the annual survey on family expenses included in the National Statistical Programme, carried out on significant samples of taxpayers belonging to eleven types of family units, distributed in the five territorial areas into which the national territory is divided”. Expenses incurred by the spouse and dependent family members are considered to be “borne by the taxpayer”.