20 October 2006

The Finance law and tax evasion

The Finance law is an intervention of necessary re-equilibrium. The previous government, the one that today takes to the streets and the roundabouts, lived on promises and getting the State into debt. There was the absolute necessity to avoid fundamental economic parameters, like the rate of inflation and the public debt, from ending up out of control.
The main cause that is endemic to this umpteenth sacrifice is tax evasion, that is quantified as 200,000,000,000 Euro per year. A monstrous figure without comparison in western countries. There are provinces and sectors where tax evasion is more than 50% and even more than the declared income base.
Public services, health, transport, schools are based on taxes from citizens. In the Constitution it is clearly written that everyone must do their bit based on their capacity to contribute. Those who don’t contribute, the so-called “crafty” ones, are in fact thieves, and they are the main cause of the increase in costs of social services and of taxation. Those who already pay taxes are thus wronged twice.
There is a simple and immediate way to get the tax dodging revealed. It would be enough to deduct from the income base, the costs paid. The tax dodgers would no longer have a reason to exist and a big chunk of the tax dodging would be recovered. A widespread system of complicity would thus fall.
If citizens could already deduct their expenditure, the Finance law would have been able to strengthen the social services and invest in infrastructure without asking citizens for even one euro, in fact reducing taxes. Why has this never been done if it is so simple?
The answer is that tax dodgers vote and as always have a big representation in Parliament. The fight against tax dodging cannot be put off. It’s not simply an issue of social justice, but of the very survival of the State.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Economy