For the director of the Revenue Agency Ernesto Maria Ruffini "a tenth is realistically recoverable" of the old tax debts. "It seems little - he adds -. But it is almost a hundred billion". He says this by answering a question in an interview with La Stampa.
The total of old debts is around 950 billion. "In large part it is about stranded money - explains Ruffini -. We are talking about failed companies, deceased people, nullatenenti. Do you know how long it takes to go back to an heir? And how can I attach the first house to a person who hasn't nothing more? ".
According to the director of the Revenue Agency "it is a question of acknowledging that a part of these debts is now only on paper. If we got rid of this unnecessary burden, the Agency would concentrate better on its work". The tragedy of the coronavirus "has paved the way for unthinkable tax margins. By virtue of overlaps, the system has become unfair and has lost the progressivity that the Constitution would impose on it. In Italy, between tax evasion and social security contributions, more than a hundred billion are lost on the road the year. With a serious reform we would pay less and we would all pay ". It would be necessary to "reorganize existing rules, eliminate unnecessary ones, collect the seven or eight hundred laws and decrees on tax matters, perhaps through a single text. Once this is done, we can move on to a real reform: the last one now goes back to fifty ' Years ago".
The grants for companies with a turnover of less than five million will be paid by the Revenue Agency, as required by the government decree "by the end of June, by bank transfer". All the fiscal deadlines of May have been postponed between the end of June and September and at the moment "no further extensions are foreseen." Ruffini's wish: "The Covid crisis will not become a wasted opportunity".
